After spending most of this past year as one of our seasonal wildlife rehabilitators/vet assistants, I thought for sure I would be writing my year-end memory on an incredible interaction with a glorious raptor patient or maybe the first time I ever fed an infant White-tailed Deer. But, while every hands-on moment with a wild patient was exciting and a privilege, I’d be disappointed in myself, if I didn’t share the story of patient #23-3274.
On September 4, I had spent my morning at school in painstakingly long lectures and my afternoon in our Infant Care Unit, providing nearly round-the-clock feedings for dozens of infant squirrels. I was on my last feed when senior veterinary intern Dr. Olivia asked if I could look at a tree bat that had just been admitted. (For those that don’t know, there are two major classifications of microbats in Virginia: crevice bats and tree bats. Crevice bats roost in cave crevices and man-made structures and tree bats that roost in – you guessed it – tree foliage. Tree bats are members of the Lasiurus genus, which directly translates to “Hairy-tailed Bats.” They are easily recognizable by their furry tail membranes and their spunky attitudes quickly made them some of my favorite species to care for.)
Like many others, I completely expected this bat to be a standard Eastern Red Bat. They are the most common tree bat species we admit, with Hoary bats following behind. But, this patient did not look like either. She was small but had a larger wingspan and a mahogany pelage with white, frosted tips. We temporarily labeled her as Hoary while the veterinary team performed an initial intake exam.
Unfortunately, this patient’s time here was extremely short. Our team identified a severe elbow fracture and a large wing tear that could not be treated. Since this bat would never again be able to fly in the wild, our team had to make the heartbreaking decision to humanely euthanize her. After being found in a basement in Staunton, an extremely abnormal place for a tree bat to reside, it is suspected that this animal was caught by an indoor-outdoor cat.
After taking a closer look post-mortem, the sudden realization hit that this bat did not match the description of any tree bat found on our side of Virginia. I immediately reached out to Leslie Sturges, president and founder of Bat Conservation and Rescue of Virginia. Leslie has been working with bats for more than two decades and has taught me close to everything I know about these critters. She confirmed that this wasn’t an Eastern Red Bat and didn’t look like any Hoary she’d ever seen. After a lot of back and forth, some measurement collection, a bit of consultation with multiple ID resources, and even a call to the original finder to see if they had made any recent trips to the beach, we were left with two options: an aberrant or abnormal juvenile Hoary bat or a Seminole bat that had somehow made it almost 200 miles out of its species’ range in Virginia. Seminole bats are found fairly commonly in the Southeast, but their range barely peeks into the southeastern corner of Virginia. A few outliers have been confirmed in Fairfax, VA, and the mountains of North Carolina, but nothing close to Augusta County.
With a lot of determination on Leslie’s end, we were able to confirm DNA testing for this patient with Dr. Karen Powers and her team at Radford University. Measurements, samples, and photos were sent. After a few weeks, results yielded a DNA sequence identity of 99.85% Lasiurus seminolus, a first for Augusta County and a likely first for the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
Though unfortunate, this is a moment that will live with me for the rest of my career. I could only witness the end of this curious creature’s story, but I am content knowing we were able to humanely end her suffering and I had a role in ensuring her “history-making” adventure did not go unnoticed. When I tell this story to friends or family, there’s an aura of disappointment surrounding the conversation. But I think this patient’s case, no matter the ending, provides an ideal segway into the importance of bat conservation efforts worldwide and highlights the role rehabilitation facilities have in these efforts.
Fortunately, though uncommonly seen in Virginia, Seminole Bats hold a “species of least concern" status with the IUCN and the population is relatively stable in their range. Many of our local bat species are not so lucky. Anthropogenic habitat loss, changes in prey populations, wind turbine collisions, human-accelerated disease spread, and even smaller-scale vehicle collisions and cat interactions, have led to severe population declines across the country.
Out of the 17 species found in Virginia, four are federally endangered and three are state endangered. Many of our other species’ populations are declining and some are even under federal review of their current threatened status, including the Little Brown Bat, a species that used to be the most common bat in North America before White-nose Syndrome took out more than 90% of their population.
I could argue that the hardest part about working with bats isn’t rehabilitation challenges or the concept of euthanasia, it’s coming to terms with the pressing truth that some of these species are no longer going to be on the planet by the turn of the next decade. That’s the one that keeps me up at night. That’s the one that forces me to cherish every single moment working with these incredible species.
So what do we do? As much as we possibly can. 
We kindly correct the “Ew, bats are gross!” or the “They’re going to get you sick!” or even the “Don’t they get stuck in your hair?” We can educate ourselves and learn the common misconceptions, the threats these animals face, and the lovely services they provide our ecosystem. We can construct bat-friendly yards, minimize our pets' access to wildlife, and set up bat houses to support local individuals. We can preserve bat habitats and use humane solutions to wildlife conflicts. We can donate and volunteer with local and even international bat rescue organizations.
And I think most importantly, we can educate others. The stigmas surrounding these nocturnal neighbors have directly affected worldwide conservation efforts. Many callers I speak to at the front desk are completely unaware of these animals’ individual personalities, intricate social structures, and vastly diverse natural history. We should tell our friends and family about bats, bring them up into conversation at the local bar or the Thanksgiving table, or stand on our chairs in the middle of a crowded restaurant and shout about the importance of bats to our ecosystem and ourselves.
Okay, maybe not that last one, but I think you get the point.
– Lilly Farmer, Front Desk Coordinator and Seasonal Wildlife Rehabilitator
Looking for resources to support bat conservation efforts or learn more about local bat species?
Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia
Bat Conservation International
Bat Management and Conservation - Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources