Very cute though

Had a book, The Bat Poet that I read to my son when he was little.

Is that a little fruit bat? We used to have little brown bats but don't see as many these days...white nose disease around here.

Thanks!

I have little brown bats here and have tried rehabbing a couple, but they are so delicate, it's hard to keep them alive after being injured by a cat.

You probably won't believe this but I'll tell the story anyway.

Shortly after we bought our old stone house we learned that there were bats that lived in the attic. Every so often we'd have one somehow find it's way into the second floor bedrooms. I learned that a linen dish towel was perfect for catching them without damage so we could release them outside.

My uncle had given my son a box turtle which was living in a large aquarium in the kitchen.

One morning I came downstairs to find the turtle had caught a bat by the nose. I could barely believe my eyes. There it was, a little brown bat caught by a box turtle. I couldn't get it out of the turtles mouth without doing damage so I just left them alone.

All day the turtle hung on...toward late afternoon I found the bat crawling in the tank and took the turtle out. Little bat was exhausted and just lay on the floor of the tank. After dark I took the tank with the bat outside and left it in the grass. Shortly afterward the bat was gone...no not the cat...I kept him inside. The bat had recovered enough to fly away.

We were thrilled.

Who would think a box turtle could catch a bat by the nose?! Mr box turtle was released shortly afterward into the field.

On edit..

I read that the fruit bats are dying from the heat in Australia poor things. They drop out of the trees. Climate change.

I hope the bat made it. You just never know how badly they may be injured. I have released many from upstairs, by catching them in a towel. The ones I tried to rehab had torn wings from the cats, and they just never make it. My cats are older now and haven't caught a bat in awhile. I love my little brown bats. Bats and hummingbirds eat mosquitoes. Yay!

Thank you for sharing!