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By Lissa Guyton |
Posted: Mon 5:50 PM, Feb 17, 2020 |
Updated: Tue 5:07 AM, Feb 18, 2020
WHITEHOUSE (WTVG) – The relatively mild winter weather this year is having an effect at Nature’s Nursery, which is caring for more bats than any other animal right now.
This time of year, the center gets a lot of sick and injured animals. Some of the bats are there because their hibernation was disturbed by humans, others are there because the lack of sustained cold weather this year.
According to experts, bats will come out and be active in the winter as long as it is warm enough and there are insects out. The lack of cold for extended periods means there are sometimes bugs for the bats to eat.
The problem is that the bats don’t get enough to eat during the short warm spikes, and then they are caught outside and cannot get back to hibernation.
Feeding them at the center is quite an operation. The bats are used to catching and eating bugs that are flying. At Nature’s Nursery they are fed out of a dish.
The goal is to get all the bats to pick up eating the bugs out of the dish on their own. However, sometimes the staff has to hold them to get them to eat.
Even if you don’t like bats, you should like what they do. They eat a lot of different insects, like moths and mosquitoes which protects crops and helps keep diseases down.
Nature’s Nursery broke a record last year by taking in nearly 3,200 animals. So far, the center is on track with the numbers at this same time last year.
If you’d like to help Nature’s Nursery continue its work, we’ve posted links. The center always needs volunteers as well as donations of supplies, food and money.
