One-Eared Bat Struggles to Fly City Wildlife Rescue Ep107
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00 A young raccoon is in a tight spot.
00:06 So what I'm going to try to do is poke him out to you.
00:09 A cold winter snaps a colony of bats out of hibernation.
00:14 He's a long shot.
00:15 He might not be releasable.
00:18 And an orphaned kill deer is introduced to himself.
00:22 We often get these little babies in on their own, so they will actually look in the mirror
00:26 and think that there's another kill deer with them.
00:30 It's known as the city within a park.
00:32 The Greater Toronto Area is home to one of the most diverse urban wildlife populations
00:37 in North America.
00:39 Here more than six million busy humans live alongside 350 different species of wild animals.
00:47 When wildlife clashes with urban life, it's usually the animals who lose.
00:52 That's when Toronto Wildlife Centre steps in.
00:55 Saving animals one day at a time.
01:07 This past year, Toronto Wildlife Centre has admitted 10 times more bats than in previous
01:12 years.
01:14 And though some people are fearful of these animals, bats are actually quite shy and harmless,
01:20 and are critical to a healthy ecosystem on our planet.
01:25 But unfortunately, sometimes individuals or even entire colonies can be displaced or injured
01:32 due to sickness or human activity.
01:35 In colder temperatures, this can be a paralyzing experience for the bats.
01:41 Extreme cold is uncomfortable for most of us, but for brown bats, it's a matter of life
01:46 and death.
01:48 Bats have a very specific temperature tolerance.
01:51 And so what happens with these guys is over a certain temperature, they're very active,
01:54 they're awake, they're metabolically active, meaning that they have a lot of energy.
01:58 When the temperatures start to drop, they involuntarily go into a state of torpor, or
02:03 basically their metabolic rate and their general metabolism slows down.
02:07 At that point in time, they can't fly.
02:09 Lisa Fosco, the centre's wildlife rehabilitation manager, is getting ready to test fly a group
02:15 of bats that were brought in after having been displaced from the location where they
02:20 had been hibernating.
02:22 So I have like 50 bats in this room, all were aroused from hibernation early.
02:26 What happens when they're woken up is that they start flying around and burning off all
02:29 the energy that they really, really, really need to stay throughout the rest of their
02:33 hibernation.
02:34 Because the bats will be flying loose in the room, only people who are vaccinated against
02:39 rabies are allowed to come in for the bats assessment.
02:43 You do have to, in order to enter a room with bats, you do have to have your full set of
02:47 rabies immunizations.
02:48 So unfortunately, without that, you wouldn't be able to enter this room right now.
02:51 But luckily we have a one-way window in this room.
02:54 This is one of the rooms that's in our viewing hallway.
02:56 So you can actually see some of our handling in our flight testing from outside the room.
03:00 Bats are able to sneak into very small holes.
03:04 So in a specially sealed room, Lisa and her assistant begin their assessment.
03:10 One of the bats came in with wing injuries.
03:12 His injuries may be too severe for him to recover.
03:16 Oh, this is chin guy.
03:17 Okay.
03:18 He might not be releasable.
03:19 So basically we wanted to give him time because some of them can fly with that.
03:23 You know, the options were euthanize him on intake because of these wing injuries or give
03:27 him a chance, but he's a long shot.
03:29 Lisa decides to give him a chance.
03:30 And we knew this at the beginning.
03:32 So I mean, they can fly with surprising deficits.
03:35 Okay.
03:36 Do you want to give him the first launch then?
03:42 Yeah.
03:44 But he doesn't take off.
03:47 With the slightest attempt at flight, Lisa is concerned about his prognosis for survival
03:52 in the wild.
03:53 Look at this.
03:54 So see these dry wing tips?
03:56 See those that's bone at the end?
03:58 I don't know if it's going to work, but yeah.
04:02 So I'm going to launch him over this in case it doesn't work.
04:07 The other thing is he doesn't want to launch.
04:09 But then he does a sort of a mini launch.
04:15 He deserves a chance.
04:16 And he will get one.
04:18 Lisa is not the type of rehabilitator who gives up easily.
04:22 Okay.
04:23 I'm just writing this on here because I'll forget.
04:25 So we'll get back to him.
04:27 Now on to the next patient.
04:29 Okay.
04:30 Next.
04:31 258.
04:32 At Toronto Wildlife Centre, animals aren't given names unless they come in in groups
04:37 of 50.
04:38 Oh, this is Lyle.
04:39 We flew him yesterday.
04:40 Did we?
04:41 Yeah, but he'll look great.
04:42 He's also kind of chunky.
04:45 Yeah, he's one of the handsome bats.
04:47 I really like this guy.
04:49 He's been here all winter and he is ready to go.
04:52 We were exercising him and we took him off of it because he was flying so well that he
04:55 didn't need it.
04:56 Okay.
04:57 There you go.
04:58 Okay.
04:59 Go ahead and launch him again.
05:00 He doesn't know this space.
05:02 The bats who fly easily will be quickly released.
05:05 Lisa is hoping Lyle qualifies as one of those bats.
05:09 It's funny because he actually prefers the hallway.
05:11 Okay, Lyle.
05:13 Come on.
05:16 I'm confused why he's not taking longer laps.
05:22 Lyle is flying, but not for long enough.
05:25 They'll need to reassess him in a larger enclosure where they can get a better look at how well
05:31 he's actually flighted.
05:32 Okay, you want to grab the next one?
05:34 Two down, 48 more to go.
05:37 Each of the bats will get the same thorough assessment.
05:40 Some will be quickly released.
05:43 Some may need to undergo more medical treatment.
05:46 The rehab team is working hard to give all the bats the best chance at getting back into
05:52 the wild.
05:54 Andrew White and Stacey Freeman from Toronto Wildlife Centre's rescue team have just arrived
05:59 in Halton Hills, a small community nestled on the western edge of the greater Toronto
06:04 area.
06:05 They've received a call about a young and possibly injured raccoon stuck between two
06:11 walls on an apartment balcony.
06:13 I'll go in like five seconds before you.
06:15 I'll block the hole, then you go in.
06:17 He'll go for the escape route.
06:19 He'll see me.
06:20 He'll go deflect right back into your net, I think.
06:22 This should be pretty straightforward.
06:24 I will leave the kennel cab at the bottom of the stairs.
06:28 And then if you get him, go, "I got him!" and I'll run in with the kennel cab.
06:32 So wait until I give you a signal from here, okay?
06:37 Okay, he's in the corner.
06:47 I got him guarded.
06:49 It's our game now.
06:51 So what I'm going to try to do is poke him out to you.
06:55 So you ready?
06:58 Okay.
07:00 Okay, got him.
07:05 Andrew quickly joins Stacey on the balcony.
07:15 You want to get him in the kennel?
07:17 The raccoon has been caught, but the rescue isn't over.
07:22 Now the team has to safely get him out of the net.
07:27 They're not sure if this young raccoon is badly injured and they don't want to risk
07:31 further harm.
07:35 Just start working the netting.
07:47 You do the door.
07:48 Perfect.
07:49 Poor little guy.
07:50 Even though he's just little, I'm still like...
07:55 Yeah, me too.
07:59 He's even smaller than I expected when we got up to him.
08:01 Though Andrew and Stacey are highly experienced at capturing raccoons, dealing so closely
08:07 with the wild animal is always unpredictable.
08:10 Perfect.
08:11 Good.
08:12 Good job.
08:14 So I would rate this rescue as successful.
08:16 It was a fairly simple rescue.
08:18 However, every rescue can become difficult very quickly if you miscalculate any of your
08:24 moves and the animal takes a different move.
08:26 It can really change.
08:27 We're next to the highway here and lots of roads and lots of vehicles travelling.
08:32 So we thought ahead and blocked the exit route for the raccoon and he pretty much didn't
08:39 have anywhere to go without going through our nets.
08:43 This young raccoon is headed back to the centre where Lisa can get a closer look at him.
08:48 The team isn't sure how he was separated from his family and they're concerned that he's
08:53 injured.
08:54 Leaving him out in the urban wild is not an option.
09:01 Beth Peilsticker is a veterinary technician at Toronto Wildlife Centre.
09:05 Today, she's working with an unusual but still quite a common bird for the Greater Toronto
09:11 Area.
09:12 We have an orphaned baby kill deer that's in care who I am going to check now and see
09:17 what his body condition is, how he's eating and decide if we need to start offering him
09:21 more food or if he's on the right plan as he is right now and go from there.
09:26 Kill deer are very interesting.
09:27 They're little birds that run around on the ground.
09:29 They like gravel areas.
09:31 So they also nest on the ground.
09:33 So people often think the babies are orphaned because they'll be running around and they're
09:37 not flying away but it's just their natural way of being.
09:40 In fact, hatched with their eyes wide open, these precocious little birds are born to
09:46 run, literally.
09:49 It's the first thing they do as soon as they escape the egg.
09:53 They're very precocious so they should start eating on their own quickly as long as you
09:57 give them the right food and the right habitat to kind of go for, do their thing in.
10:01 Kill deer can be crafty.
10:04 Often people think they need help when they're actually perfectly fine.
10:08 And the mother kill deer will pretend she has a broken wing to try and lure predators
10:12 away from the nest.
10:13 Baby kill deer are in grave danger if they become separated from their parents.
10:19 While this little orphan seems perfectly healthy, his chances for survival aren't guaranteed.
10:25 They're actually incredibly difficult to rehab.
10:27 When we get in baby kill deer, they're just very fragile, young little birds.
10:31 So we generally found out that we have to give them a ton of heat, which is very interesting.
10:35 So we have this giant heat lamp and the heat pad and the whole works on this tiny little
10:40 bird and it's the best way to keep them alive.
10:43 Beth is worried that despite all her efforts, this little guy may be suffering from an identity
10:50 crisis.
10:51 They need to know that they're a kill deer and think that they are with other kill deer.
10:55 So Beth has placed a mirror inside his enclosure.
10:59 We often get these little babies in on their own, so it's always good to give them a mirror
11:03 and it keeps them company so they will actually look in the mirror and think that there's
11:07 another kill deer with them in their enclosure.
11:09 This baby kill deer is growing up fast and it won't be too long before he can be released.
11:16 But first, it's time for a checkup.
11:18 Okay, so I'm just going to try to catch this little guy.
11:22 He's getting to an age where he could be flighted very soon, so I just want to be careful that
11:26 he doesn't fly out of his house.
11:30 And he's quite fast, so we'll see how this goes.
11:39 So now that I have him, I'm just going to feel his body condition and see how he's doing.
11:45 And he feels pretty good, which is nice, so we're doing a good job raising him up.
11:50 And then I'm just going to take a little look at his feathers, make sure they're coming
11:53 in nicely.
11:54 And these look good.
11:56 And then I'm going to put him into his box and get a weight on him and see if he needs
12:00 some more food offered or if he's okay with what he has.
12:05 His weight is good, but Beth plans to make some changes to his diet.
12:09 I would like to see him a little chubbier, so we're going to start giving him a little
12:12 more food and see how he does with that.
12:15 He's still going to remain in this enclosure for another week or so, and then we'll upgrade
12:20 him to a bigger house, bigger enrichment, more stuff to do.
12:24 Just a little more food and time and he should be great.
12:27 Great for release, ready to go.
12:29 It's hard to believe this delicate creature can make such a shrill sound, but it's actually
12:36 where the name comes from.
12:38 Listen carefully and you may be able to hear the word killdeer.
12:45 This young raccoon may be trying to express a few choice words of his own.
12:50 So this raccoon, actually he was with his family traveling around on the rooftops and
12:55 he got wedged.
12:56 He's also kind of aggressive.
12:59 He's just scared.
13:00 He's a teenager and he's just really scared, so it's coming out as aggressiveness.
13:04 It's been a few days since this raccoon was brought in by the rescue team.
13:09 During this time, he hasn't eaten a thing.
13:12 We've been on some serious plans to try to get him to take food and so far we haven't
13:15 found too much that succeeded, so that's why I just wanted to try to sit down and actually
13:19 manually feed him.
13:21 He's just really weak.
13:22 A lot of the damage was to his skull and his neck.
13:25 Just by looking at him, you wouldn't think he's dealing with broken bones, but wild animals
13:30 are very good at concealing injuries and pain.
13:33 He's got a fracture in his face and his skull.
13:36 It's causing some issues with his eye, but he's also got some issues.
13:38 We can't find anything on his x-rays, but he's having a hard time with his jaw and it
13:42 was swallowing.
13:43 So there's nothing radiographically visible, but there's clearly issues there.
13:47 So just trying to kind of get him over the hump.
13:49 You can't put a cast on a raccoon's head.
13:51 Generally, if they have a fracture in their skull, it's just a waiting game.
13:54 We wait for them to heal, put them in a cage where they're not going to fall or create
13:57 any damage.
13:58 Just basically cage rest.
13:59 A fractured skull isn't as bad as some of the other fractures that we see.
14:03 Unfortunately, despite eating today for the first time, this young raccoon still isn't
14:09 ready to leave the center.
14:10 Well, he was originally up to be looked at for release, just because his eye's looking
14:14 better.
14:15 And he's of good age and he's feisty, but then, so we had to look at him.
14:18 He's absolutely, positively not a candidate.
14:21 So it looks like this little guy will be staying here a bit longer where they can monitor his
14:26 injuries and give him some time to heal.
14:30 It's not ideal, but Lisa believes it's for the best.
14:34 Being in captivity presents a lot of challenges and disadvantages for a young raccoon or any
14:40 animal, but sometimes disadvantage doesn't mean demise.
14:46 Meet Van Gogh.
14:48 Around here, if you get a name, you earned it.
14:49 And we fondly call him or refer to him as Van Gogh.
14:52 This is a bat that came into us in the winter in good body condition with the rest of the
14:56 colony, and he's missing one entire ear.
14:59 So for us, it's really important to see a bat that was surviving just fine in the wild
15:03 and able to feed and forage the same as the rest of his colony with this type of handicap.
15:08 Van Gogh is one of a colony of bats that Lisa is assessing in the hopes of releasing them
15:14 in good health while the weather is still warm enough.
15:17 The belief among the experts was that a bat with an ear issue wouldn't survive in the
15:21 wild because they can't echolocate or find food.
15:23 To echolocate is to determine the location of something by measuring the time it takes
15:29 for an echo to return from it.
15:32 He may have survived in the wild without an ear, but in captivity, he developed another
15:37 problem.
15:38 He developed a swollen wrist inside the caging.
15:41 So this is something that we want to make sure that we can work with him and resolve.
15:45 Unfortunately, he's been healing really, really slowly, and we're in a situation now
15:48 where we're running out of summer.
15:50 So we need to try to kind of get him speeded up in his recovery or he's not going to make
15:55 it out for the end of the season.
15:57 Bats need the fall period to set up for hibernation.
16:00 Their bodies are not equipped to survive the cold temperatures, and Lisa doesn't want any
16:05 of them to have to stay at the center over the winter.
16:09 Face him toward me because I want to see his wrists.
16:11 Okay, and then actually go ahead and restrain him.
16:18 Okay, let's do an extension on the other wing so we can see if he's responding to that.
16:32 So tonight, once it gets a little bit darker, we'll fly him.
16:36 I feel like the swelling has gone down, but he's still a little bit sensitive in that
16:39 side.
16:40 The other day, that was worse.
16:43 So I just don't want to push him to fly until we know that it's comfortable.
16:47 But considering that it's getting late in the season, it's kind of becoming a time issue.
16:52 So great.
16:53 We'll see.
16:54 I think it's more hopeful than it was.
16:57 It's the kind of results she wants to see.
17:00 For the past few days, this bat's treatment has been fast-tracked to give him a better
17:05 chance at release.
17:07 If we don't get a hibernating animal out of here by about the beginning of fall, then
17:10 we lose the ability to get him out of here until next spring.
17:13 So at this point, we're kind of pushing him along, trying to get the swelling down, get
17:16 him more comfortable.
17:17 And hopefully, we can recondition him in enough time to get out for this year.
17:21 Lisa is hoping to clear as many of the bats as possible for release.
17:25 The center is no place for a hibernating bat.
17:29 But time is running out.
17:34 So you've taken a couple of views of the kill deer this morning.
17:38 Beth and Heather, the center's head vet, are looking at an X-ray of a kill deer who's now
17:44 ready to move to an outdoor enclosure.
17:47 It's the last step before release.
17:49 But so far, the team hasn't been able to determine whether this guy can actually fly.
17:55 So I personally didn't see anything on it.
17:58 He looked really good.
17:59 OK.
18:00 And I guess we're mostly concerned then about his wings and his shoulders, just to make
18:03 sure that there's no problems that we haven't detected that would cause him not to be able
18:09 to fly.
18:10 Yes.
18:11 It just seemed like a good idea, since people were not sure if his flight was excellent
18:14 or not.
18:15 Yeah.
18:16 You do see a kill deer on the ground a lot.
18:17 You think that maybe they're a ground bird.
18:20 But they do fly, and they do need to be able to fly.
18:22 So this is something that's important for him as part of his release.
18:26 We'll be evaluating the whole picture today, so making sure his body condition's OK, and
18:31 that his feather condition's OK, and that he's waterproof.
18:34 And these are all things that are important for our wildlife when they're going to be
18:38 released.
18:39 It's the end of the summer, and the pressure is on to get this kill deer released.
18:44 It's important to get this guy back out into the wild before their migration.
18:48 So we do have a limited amount of time to get him back out.
18:52 Those who miss their migration and we can't release them, they will have to stay over
18:56 the winter with us, and we'll have to keep them in captivity.
18:59 And staying at the centre for the winter is just about the worst thing that can happen
19:04 to this type of bird.
19:05 There are some wild birds that are just too high stress, and they just, they can't be
19:11 kept in captivity for an extended amount of time.
19:13 They end up damaging themselves in the housing, and basically no matter what you do, they
19:17 won't eat, and it becomes a big problem.
19:20 With his x-rays done, it's time to move this guy to a new outdoor enclosure.
19:26 What's your plan on flying him?
19:27 I think we can take him out and look at his toe and spritz him a little bit to check his
19:31 waterproofing, and then probably just give him a little toss and see how he flies to
19:36 the ground.
19:37 We're going to get the kill deer out and have a look at him.
19:40 There was a report that he hurt a toe, so I'm going to look at his toe, make sure there's
19:44 no problems there.
19:45 Is it still in here?
19:46 Yeah, it's right there.
19:47 He just has a little scrape on it.
19:48 Yeah, he's got like an abrasion on the top that doesn't seem to be a problem for him
19:54 now.
19:55 Seems to be healing well.
19:56 It's going to be a matter of just kind of spritzing him with some water.
19:59 So we want to make sure that he's waterproof, which just makes sure his feather condition
20:04 is okay so that if it rains on him, he won't get really wet when he's released.
20:08 So that's something we always like to make sure.
20:10 So for a bird to be waterproof, their feathers need to interlace, and they have to have all
20:17 the right feathers.
20:18 So if they're missing some feathers, so sometimes there's feathers missing, if there's some
20:22 oil on the feathers, which prevents them from being waterproof, then the water can get underneath
20:26 the feathers and actually go along their body and they get quite wet, and then they can
20:30 get cold.
20:31 So this is quite a concern.
20:34 So that's what we're going to make sure today, that he's okay.
20:37 You can see the water beating on his feathers.
20:39 It's a great indication that his waterproofing is good.
20:41 It just runs off.
20:44 You know the feathers below that are going to be dry, and that's the way feathers are
20:47 supposed to function.
20:48 Okay.
20:49 Okay, and then we want to see...
20:51 It looks pretty good.
20:52 And so, just look down there.
20:55 It looks great.
20:56 His feathers below, you can see, are nice and dry.
20:58 Let's just see how he walks and how he extends his wings.
21:01 Now that he's wet, he might not fly as well as he could have otherwise, but we'll just
21:05 kind of give him a bit of a toss.
21:07 Yeah, it's very hard to evaluate their flight in a small cage.
21:13 They're very good runners and very comfortable on the ground.
21:17 But he's holding his wings in great position and the x-rays are fine.
21:21 It's a tough decision, but with migration season looming ahead, Heather and Beth decide
21:27 to err on the side of freedom.
21:30 Well, I think that the way he's holding his wings, I think he's okay to go.
21:33 Yeah, he pops to the ground really well.
21:36 And then there's always, when they release him, there's always that opportunity if he's
21:40 not flying that they could probably re-catch him again.
21:43 I think they can probably evaluate his flight at that time as well.
21:47 I feel good about releasing him.
21:49 Every day the lives of these animals are in the hands of the rehabilitation experts.
21:54 And every single factor is carefully considered.
21:58 A chance at a good life is not a small part of the decision process.
22:02 It would be really upsetting to have to keep them for an extended amount of time.
22:07 They do best in the wild.
22:09 They do best if they're able to migrate.
22:11 So it's always kind of hard if we have to keep them for a long time.
22:14 They're not really happy here.
22:15 So we'd like to get them out and get them back with other killdeer.
22:19 So later that day, Stacey Freeman brought the little killdeer back to the marshy location
22:25 where he was found and set him free.
22:28 If there was still any doubt about his ability to fly, it's gone now.
22:33 Getting the animals back into their natural habitat is always the goal at Toronto Wildlife
22:39 Centre.
22:40 But over in a different part of the GTA, Sarah Castillo is doing just that with a bat.
22:47 Sarah, a member of the rescue and release team, is getting ready to release one of the
22:52 bats who was recently got the all clear from Lisa.
22:57 This bat was displaced from his hibernaculum in this church after a nasty cold snap last
23:02 winter.
23:04 Now it's time to go home.
23:05 And Sarah is hoping he'll find a place here to prepare for the hibernation period.
23:11 From here I can't do anything else.
23:12 He makes that decision.
23:14 The best type of release is when an animal makes the decision to leave on its own.
23:19 But this bat doesn't seem ready to fly.
23:24 So things like that happen.
23:26 One common way to release a bat is to give him a little nudge.
23:30 Come on, get some air.
23:35 They do that.
23:40 Sometimes they'll just circle and literally just keep going higher and higher, which is
23:43 why it's nice to do it in this light because you can see where they're going to fall, pick
23:46 them up, try again.
23:48 Sarah isn't ready to give up.
23:50 She knows it can often take several attempts before the launch is successful.
23:57 And then finally he's off.
23:59 Because I didn't get him up, I like to get him nice and high when I release them, I chose
24:03 to throw him, which gives him that extra height.
24:06 So as he's coming, his wings are starting to go and you saw he was getting more and
24:09 more air as he was going.
24:11 It's been a long summer of rehabilitation for all of the bats at the centre.
24:16 Over the next few days, the rest of the healthy ones will be released, just in time for hibernation
24:22 season.
24:24 After that, survival will be up to them.
24:27 It was great.
24:28 Bats know where they're going.
24:29 This is his home and it really looked like he was making that decision as to where home
24:32 is, so it looks like he went home.
24:35 It was really great after his first couple of not so great flights.
24:38 You could tell he was making those decisions as to where he wants to go and obviously somewhere
24:41 around here is home.
24:42 It might not be where we thought, but I mean this is all part of where he hunts.
24:46 This is his hunting ground.
24:47 This is home.
24:48 [Music]
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