Biologists catch, measure, tag to help protect bats

[Wayne Harrison]

Biologists catch, measure, tag to help protect bats
By Greg Kocher
CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU
Lexington Herald-Leader

<img src="http://www.kentucky.com/images/kentucky/kentucky/15107/228230300702.jpg" align="left" hspace=10 vspace=0>
Seth Bishop of East Kentucky Power Cooperative prepared to untangle a bat from a net. He and others are ensuring no rare bats live near the route of a proposed power line.



The bats are on time.

Biologist Josh Young had said that peak feeding time for bats would be from 9 to 10:30 p.m.

Sure enough, just a few minutes after 9 Thursday night, Young and colleague Seth Bishop make their first catches of the night -- a red bat and a smaller Eastern pipistrelle.

Gently the two men untangle the tiny creatures from nets strung near Silver Creek, 6 miles west of Richmond.

The red bat in Young's hands gnaws vigorously at his fingers. One hand is bare, the other covered with a batting glove. Young, who has been vaccinated against rabies, puckers and blows on the bat's head in a vain attempt to distract it.

"Red bats can actually break the skin. But this guy is so little," says Bishop, who held the pipistrelle or "pip" for short.

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