Ottawa Herald, The (KS)
Published: June 27, 2011
After Carolyn Elder flicked on the light in the dining room of the First United Methodist Church a couple weeks ago she spotted something lying in the middle of the floor.
When she went to pick it up, it moved.
“It would move sideways like a hover craft and then drop back down,” Elder said.
Realizing it was a bat, she shut the light off and quickly found another room to use.
“It was kind of an eerie feeling because he was fluttering around,” Elder said.
That experience with a creature of the night wouldn’t be her last. Elder, who is a member at First United Methodist Church, 203 E. Fourth St., Ottawa, encountered last week another bat hanging nearby — outside Dengel and Son Mortuary, 235 S. Hickory St., where she works as a pre-need counselor.
But this little guy didn’t have the same effect on her as the first bat.
“He’s cute,” Elder said June 20. “As long as he’s asleep on the side of the building, he’s OK.”
What is that?
Sightings of bats aren’t uncommon in Ottawa, especially this time of year.
Larabe Alexander, community service officer with the Ottawa Police Department, said he gets calls for bat removal about once every couple months.
“They’re all around this area and most people don’t know it,” Alexander said. “Nighttime, when dusk comes up, a lot people think they’re birds running around, but they’re actually little bats.”
About 15 species of bats are native to Kansas with most found in the western part of the state. Some people assume the bats in this area are fruit bats. But Bob Gress, director of Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita, said he speculated they are, in fact, eastern red bats heard overhead. There could be large or small brown bats in the area as well, Gress said.
Red bats commonly are found in the trees and foliage, he said, and, unlike other bats, they are not colonial bats. Instead, they are solitary animals living only with their young.
The small, reddish-brown nocturnal mammals have flown their way into local basements and buildings, often times just seeking a cozy place to sleep. They usually prefer dark, moist areas but not always.
These bats typically are no larger than a human palm with about an average two-inch body and six-inch wingspan, weighing mere ounces.
Good or bad?
The City of Ottawa recently spent about $7,000 for bat control experts to remove and relocate bats from the Ottawa Municipal Auditorium, 301 S. Hickory St. Bats are a protected species with 12 species of bats listed as endangered, and one as threatened, according to a website for Defenders of Wildlife, an organization devoted to protecting animals.
Despite the city’s effort to remove the bats, Scott Bird, Ottawa city finance director, said he’s not surprised there have been recent sightings along Hickory Street.
“I see them flying at night all the time,” Bird said.
While bats aren’t usually aggressors, they’re not harmless either, as they can spread disease.
Becky Bentley, Prairie Paws Animal Shelter director, 3173 K-68, Ottawa, said bats are the No. 1 carrier of rabies.She said animal shelter staff haven’t received any reports or calls about bats, but if they did, they couldn’t act on them.
“They are considered a wild animal and because of all the risks involved, we would have to call the state game warden,” Bentley said.
But bats do come with benefits.
Regardless of the risks, some people say bats’ usefulness outweighs their reputation and the possibility of infection.
Bats’ first choice of food: insects.
During the summer, they can help regulate the mosquito population, reportedly eating up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour.
Saving ‘wild stuff’
Angie Bradley-Butts embraces the small, hairy flyers. She typically gravitates toward unconventional animals and, as a teacher at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center, 401 S. Main St., Ottawa, she said her classroom has housed some of those animals, including tarantulas.
Bradley-Butts said she uses live animals, like tarantulas and bats, to teach her students. T
hrough the years, Bradley-Butts even has “saved” three bats around town. Her daughter named one Frankie.
“I wish people would be more educated about them because they are terrified and they are killing them,” Bradley-Butts said. ”If you see a bat laying there, it’s either sick or not well.”
One of the first bats Bradley-Butts saved was dehydrated in her garage, she said, and she nursed it back to health by giving it water daily, at first with an eye-dropper.
Was she scared?
“No, it didn’t really bother me,” Bradly-Butts said. “I was careful and cautious.
“They are an animal and animals bite, though,” Bradley-Butts said. “I’ve even had one hiss at me before, too. But people look at bats like they are this terrifying creature of the night and they’re not.”
The “creepiest” thing about them, Bradley-Butts said, is when they walk.
“They walk on their hands and it kind of makes an M-shape,” Bradley-Butts said. “It’s crazy looking.”
In Bradley- Butts’ effort to utilize the benefits of bats, she said she has built a “bat-house” in her yard. Similar to a birdhouse, but flatter and with the opening at the bottom, Bradley-Butts said, the house attracts the animals and keeps them out of her home.
“They just eat bugs and they’re not out to get people,” she said.
Alexander said if someone does see a bat around home or work, simply, don’t bother it.
“If they’re in the spot in the daytime, they are going to be there until they are disrupted,” he said.
Alexander uses gloves when he removes bats and said he has a place out in the country where he takes the “wild stuff.”
“I’d rather me pick them up than someone else,” Alexander said.
Angelique McNaughton 