Fatally snared bat

[ellen h]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I am afraid the Bat is dead ,if you look closely you can see the dried wing bones,the eyes are gone and it looks very dehydrated, it plainly went after a prey item and its under-fur got hooked. The first Pip I ever saw close-up had landed and taken prey from a Honeysuckle this one obviously did not realise is danger with this particular plant

Yes was definitely dead when I found it.....as nightshade says think it got too close to plant as it was after prey,wings were lacerated where it had tried to get free
ellen

[shei111]

Hello ellen, that is such a shame ,poor thing, shei

[ellen h]

Originally Posted by shei111

Hello ellen, that is such a shame ,poor thing, shei

Yes was the last thing I expected this morning,couldnt believe it!!!
ellen

[KeenTeen17]

thats extremely unique! Ive never seen that before!

[bigwig]

how sad.

[RobinP]

It doesn't look snagged to me, maybe it just died and happened to fall on the burdock somehow. Surely a healthy bat would be able to pull itself free from a plant?

[bearhugger]

As an aside, i thought you needed a license to handle bats. I found one on my doorstep once with a tear in the membrane in the wing. I called the local RSPCA office who sent a local bat expert to come and pick it up and take away to put it right. We left the bat alone but made sure nothing was going to get it while it was vunerable.

[ellen h]

It was definitely snagged on the burrs,the wing membrane was damaged quite badly.
I can assure you if it was alive I would have immediately phoned the bat rescue as I am aware you should have a licence to handle them.I did remove it later in the day(with difficulty) and buried it in the undergrowth as to be honest I didnt want to have to see it disintegrate as I use the path a lot.
It was very unlucky for the bat that the lane is empty of burrdock except for the patch it got caught in.
ellen

[thunder]

Originally Posted by RobinP

It doesn't look snagged to me, maybe it just died and happened to fall on the burdock somehow. Surely a healthy bat would be able to pull itself free from a plant?

Perhaps you have never encountered Burdock?

I have seen several reports of this, also of a Bat snagged on barbed wire. I think bats are fairly casual about touching plants, with their bodies and their wings. Obviously, most of the time it doesn't matter. Except when they encounter Burdock.

henrya

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by thunder

Perhaps you have never encountered Burdock?

I have seen several reports of this, also of a Bat snagged on barbed wire. I think bats are fairly casual about touching plants, with their bodies and their wings. Obviously, most of the time it doesn't matter. Except when they encounter Burdock.

henrya

indeed a very insistant plant at holding onto you. That poor little bat's wing is stretched quite tight indicating that its badly caught.

This is actually very useful for indication of size for pipistrelle bats for those who aren't so familiar, burdock is common - look around next time you go for a walk and take in the size of the seed head and you'l have an idea as to how tiny this bat actually is!