bat

We have had three bats in the house since last week. I caught the first one and put it outside... but when I found 2 yesterday i call the local batman (google is my friend!) He came around to take a look at them and I found out a lot of interesting info about them. They turned out to be Common Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) a fairly common bat here in Holland. They were only about 2 inches long. I had assumed that because they were so small they might have fallen from their nest, but it turned out that they were fully grown ! Apparently the mating season is in autumn, but the females keeps the sperm inside her until the time is right to release an egg to be fertilised. This can depend on the amount of food available or other ecological factors, and is usually between April and May. They could have been late this year due too the cold, rainy weather. the females can go into a sort of summer hibernation to slow down the pregnancy while they wait for for conducive weather.

They produce one offspring at a time and as many as three a year. The young are fed until they are adult, which takes about 6 weeks. Seeing as we don't have caves and natural rocky places for them live in here in Holland, they mainly make colonies in attics, hollow house walls and under guttering etc. The batman specialist looked all around the house but could not see were they might have been nesting....

Here are the two I found - one in the bedroom and one in the greenhouse: 

 

here are two links to more info on these fascinating creatures :~)
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/291.shtml

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Pipistrellus_pipistrellus.html