Young bats wilting in the heat

[Wayne Harrison]

<img src="http://www.sacbee.com/static/rich_content_images/280010-bat.jpg" align="left" vspace=0 hspace=10>Dharma Webber, who founded a bat-rescue group, handles a Mexican free-tailed bat during a discussion on bats in 2003.
Sacramento Bee file, 2003/Andy Alfaro












Young bats wilting in the heat
Critters by the dozens fall from bridge hangout
By Blair Anthony Robertson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Story appeared in Metro section, Page B1

The heat wave in Sacramento is taking its toll on the area's bat population.
The young ones, especially, are getting pushed around and muscled out of their upside-down perches -- and they are dropping to the ground by the dozens.

That was the scene Sunday in Old Sacramento, where more than 60 young Mexican free-tailed bats fell about 25 feet from their daytime hideouts in the crevices of the I Street bridge.


While the bat death toll is not enough to raise concerns about a ripple effect, especially the one related to their feeding on West Nile Virus-carrying mosquitoes, it has alarmed those who care for the much-maligned mammal.

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