We found a tiny drowned bat in a bucket of water. We do not know how it fell in or how it drowned. Perhaps it had already died and then dropped into the bucket… The moment we saw it, we automatically said “oh, poor thing” in that soft, sympathetic voice. It landed deeply with Nikola, who kept repeating “oh, poor thing” for quite a while.
Bats live under our roof and are mostly excellent neighbours. They sleep through the winter. In summer they sleep by day and head out to hunt at night. We see them often, and we stay out of one another’s way.
We felt sorry for this little baby, but it was also a rare chance to look closely at what a baby bat actually looks like. Curiosity took over, so we gently turned it around to see it from every side.
That evening we read that bats can carry a virus, rabies, which can be transmitted and is fatal if vaccination is not given quickly. Even dead bats should not be touched because they may still carry infection.
The real risk is a bite, which a bat will give only when defending itself with no other way out. Otherwise they are famously timid and flee from people. We hope our Biševo bats do not carry the virus, especially since they have been out of contact with mainland bats for generations. Still, just to be safe, we will not be handling them again…
