Megabattie

Rescuing Pukwudgie: a Lesser Long-Eared Bat

Pukwudgie is an adult female Lesser Long-Eared Bat who was found in a fold up gazebo when the MOPs were assembling it. I think she found a nice place to hole up and go into torpor for the winter and was upset to be woken up. The MOPs managed to box her and one of them brought her home until I could collect her. When she said that she had her in a box which had some holes in it, but she had put a towel over it, I suspected when I got there, the batty would have escaped the box and found her own (probably inconveniently located) place which suited her better, and sure enough, when opened the box she was nowhere to be found. I started look through the laundry for her, but when I asked for a stepladder so I could reach on top of the cupboards, and went back into the laundry, I went to pickup some of the stuff on the floor, and I just caught a glimpse of a tiny little dark thing under the basket on the floor; I could so easily have trodden on her, but it seemed like it was our lucky day (hers and mine). She's female, which is a little worrying in that it's usually the males who are found alone away from the other bats. However, in care she's doing really well, eating and behaving normally. It's too late in Winter to be releasing her back to her habitat in the next week or so; the night temperatures are too cool and there's no insect activity out there for her to feed on before going back into torpor. She'll be overwintered and released in mid to late Spring, which isn't all that far away. Often MOPs "kidnap" a bat; they find it very quiet and passive (in torpor), disturb them by rescuing them and bringing them home and warming them up. Once they're disturbed, they need to come into care so they can be re-fed, to top them up with food, so when they wake up in spring, they've got enough energy to warm themselves up and hunt for food. Her name? Apropos of my continuing magical creature theme, a Pukwudgie is a short grey large eared creature who can be quite mischievous. Also said to have porcupine like quills. I think she fits that description; grey belly, large ears, and mischief making. As for the porcupine quills, her mouth full of razor sharp teeth is probably the magical batty equivalent, and her escape onto the floor under the cloth is probably her mischief making nature; magic wielded to make sure she didn't get squished while she was hiding. Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for our batties. Tolga is an awesome place in Far North Queensland, which has charity status. By sending donations to them, they get a percentage (and deserve every cent) and they can allocate money to me for batty expenses without it becoming part of my income stream (which makes tax time difficult). https://tolgabathospital.org/donate/ Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to me. If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for me. IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt. The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie. Here’s Jenny’s email. [email protected]