So after work, I usually spend my time out for a run in the zoo and try to keep updated on my blog. When my roommate Rebecca comes home, she says that the zoo could use our help. I was more than happy to help out. It turns out that the zoo has this old gazebo that is not part of display anymore that a tree had fallen on and they are going to tear it down. It may be an eyesore to the public, but a nice little home for large brown nose bats. Despite their name, these little guys are quite small. On a one night notice, the job needed to get done.
When I arrived at the site, it wasn't quite dark out yet. Since we had to wait until it at least got dark, the keepers were nice enough to give us something for our diet, pizza! :) Unfortunately, this did not draw the attention of the bats to come out and try some with us.
After we were done devouring our pizza, it started getting dark. Some bats started flying out which was good because this is what we wanted them to do. However, we still needed to get the rest out and keep them out. We started sealing off the gazebo with plastic furniture covers. Even though this isn't the ideal method of doing this, this is all we could do on a one night notice. After a hour or so of sweating from the humidity, stories over the summer and quality bonding time between the interns, keepers and myself, we finally got the place sealed out. However, we still had another task to complete.
As cute as the bats were, there were still a few stubborn bats who did not want to leave. We had to check every crevice in the ceiling and try to take them out and release them. As soon as we thought we were done, we would find more. I thought the night was never going to end! By 12 AM we were finally able to get them all out. This is good news to us since we were expecting a 25% death rate of all the bats living there.
By morning, we were all gone and so were the bats, except for one unfortunately. However, this is better than the expected 25%. In the end, we saved a lot of bats before the gazebo was torn down. Even though this was a very unexpected experience, to me it was a learning experience of what duties are called as a keeper. Sometimes they call for late nights, long hours, patience and unexpected events. Even though that saving the bats were not important to the people tearing the gazebo down, it at least made our saving crews' night and could sleep better knowing that we saved a bunch of bats. :)
