We have five common bat species here in our area. They are the
Mexican/Brazilian Freetail, the evening bat, the eastern red bat, the yellow bat
and the seminole bat. The freetails and evening bats are colonial, meaning they
live in groups of dozens or hundreds, frequently in houses or bathouses. The
red, yellow and seminole bats are solitary foliage roosters meaning they sleep
alone in trees, frequently spanish moss.
Bats
are crucial to our environment, helping us in ways from eating mosquitoes and
beetles destructive to crops, to pollinating plants such as the agave, giving us
tequila! While bats are the animal most frequently found with rabies, by no
means are they all rabid,. Less than 0.05% of bats in the wild are found with
rabies.
For extensive information on bats, visit www.Batworld.org
for general bat information or www.batcon.org
for conservation and bathouse information. For information specific to
Florida, the Florida Bat Conservancy has a great website covering all aspects of
bats in Florida at: www.floridabats.org.
There is also a company that specializes in bat research and bathouses here in
Volusia county: Fly By Night, Inc.
Did you know? Baby bat season runs from May through August!
Babies are typically born in May or June and mature over the summer. While we
have several species of bats in Volusia/Flager counties, two species are most
prevalent, the Brazilian Freetail, like the one pictured above, and the Evening
bat. Both are colonial species who live in large groups in bathouses, attics,
under bridges and in other small crevices. It is illegal to evict bats during
this time period, to prevent the death of the babies. Wildlife Rehab Daytona is
one of the only groups in the area to take orphaned baby bats and has received
specialized training in their care. See our bat page for
more info.
