How We Process the Bats

In the last video I was removing a bat. This is what we then do to the bats. Nothing cruel or unusual. Be sure to sense K.H.'s excitement. Also, though the sound is crappy (turning my sharp sssss into a lisp), if you listen really carefully you can hear the bat. It is making a high clicking noise.

Some explanations as to what I was looking for (I'll try to avoid too much jargon):

1. Species - for this species it is obvious, Big Brown Bat again, but if it is a small Myotis species we use a dichotomous key to determine which particular Myotis it is.
2. Ear length (mm) - the longest length of the ear
3. Forearm length (mm) - the length from the elbow to the wrist
4. Sex - Male or female, generally visible and easy to decipher
5. Reproductive Status - For males, their testes will be large and sorta bald if they are reproductive; if not, you don't see any. With the females it is harder to tell if they are pregnant (my previous boss would feel the belly for a skull, I never mastered that art). However we can tell if the females are lactating because their nipples are large and often extremely gnawed on (after all, you've seen those teeth, poor things)
6. Age - Usually adult or subadult. We can tell this by looking at the wings with a light shining through. If it is an adult, the finger joints are knobby. If it is a subadult, then the joints are not knobby, and semi-transparent.
7. Wing Score - Looking for any kind of damage to the wings, whether it be physical holes, or some sort of disease (such as White Nose, which is not in Utah . . . yet)

Then we weigh the bat in the bag, release the bat, and then weigh the bag. For this study the poop in the bag is negligible.