Video Shows Up Close Look at Mamma Bat and her Baby, on Trail and in the Air
(Crystal A. Proxmire, July 2, 2024)
Ludington, MI – Walking along a pedestrian and bicycle path in Ludington State Park Monday morning, I spotted a small furry creature curled up in the middle of the trail. It was about the size of a vole, which is a little brown rodent that I see every once in a while. I expected it to run off, but also considered that it might be injured because of how it was shaking and breathing heavily. But as I got closer I realized it had wings. It was a bat!
I didn’t know what was going on when I first saw it. The camera footage is clear once you understand it, but at the time I did not. It looked to me like the little creature had it’s paws over it’s face. Except bats don’t have front paws. When I realized it was a second bat, I still did not know at the time how bat births really worked.
Bats give birth upside down, catching the baby, called a pup, in it’s wings. The pup starts to suckle, and the mother bat will fly around with the pup feeding as she looks for food. She looks like a caped superhero, carrying the baby as she soars. Most bats have just one pup at a time, and they feed heavily for the first few weeks.
Normally they are active in the late evenings, early mornings, and through the night. That’s why it was even more odd to see one (well, two) in the daytime. The location was even more problematic, as bicyclists and people walking don’t always notice the little things in their path.
At first I sat on the trail near the bat, to keep it safe and to get some video. I wanted to find out if it was injured, as well as if I might be able to gently move it off the main trail. It was hard to tell what was going on, but I did figure out that it was a baby. The bat did eventually fly up, swirling around in circles before flying under a small pavilion over signs with park information. It ended up making it’s way into a little cubby in the corner, which was a much safer spot.
It’s worth noting that if you see animals in the wild, it is safest and kindest to leave them be. Only in situations where an animal is in danger might it be appropriate to intervene, and even then please do so with great care. In this situation, while getting a video is definitely fun, the real task was figuring out if the bat was injured and if it could be safely moved off the trail.
Here is video of the bats:
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