The HIT Bat – a Survival Story!

Anyone who attended the Barbie movie on November 18 will recall the excitement generated by a bat who decided to grace us with his presence by flying around the auditorium – mainly pre-movie, but also once or twice during the movie. While some patrons were disturbed by the flying mammal, the bat was far more freaked out than anyone in the audience. Big brown bats (a misnomer since they are only about 2″ long and weigh no more than 3/4 oz) are a protected species – insectivores who “fatten up”  during fall for winter hibernation. No doubt it found a nice warm place in the theatre but was disturbed by the noise of the movie previews and crowd. And because bats negotiate their passage through space via echolocation, we suspect all the noise added to it becoming disoriented. Eventually it settled, but despite our best efforts we were unable to locate it after the show. Fast forward to a week later and as we were setting up the bar for the Warren Miller movie, guess who we found? Board members, Doug & Rich attempted to release our bat friend outside, but due to the extreme cold and all the stored fat it lost the previous week, it was unable to take flight.  As luck would have it, Heather and Eric over at The White Rabbit got wind of the situation and took it upon themselves to retrieve, feed, and warm up the bat before delivering it to ReWild – a bat rehab center in Eagle River WI.
Photo credit: Heather Hillman