Pallid Bat
Pallid Bat
Antrozous pallidus
Pallid bats (Antrozous pallidus) are a species found all over the American West including Canada and Mexico, though there have been colonies found in other parts of the country. One may find these sandy brown bats in various habitats from grasslands to arid regions.
These bats consume about half of their body weight each night, and are able to hunt so successfully because of their large ears which allow them to hear the faintest of sounds made by their prey on the ground. They eat a variety of ground dwelling arthropods including beetles, crickets, scorpions, spiders and much more.
Lindsay’s pallid bat is named Vesper. She became a patient in the wildlife hospital in 2018 after being found on the ground of someone’s porch. After some testing, Lindsay’s hospital staff discovered that she flew abnormally because of swelling of the joints in her left wing. Because of her injury, she would not be an efficient hunter and thus would not thrive in the wild. While in care at Lindsay’s hospital, staff found out that she arrived pregnant. Vesper gave birth to one baby, a rare and special occurrence. After nursing and a few months in care, the offspring was successfully released back into the wild!
Vesper lives in an enclosure that is designed to promote her natural behavior while also allowing her to compensate for her inability to fly. To allow her to engage in social behaviors, she is placed into the Mexican free-tailed bat enclosure to allow her to roost with them as they occasionally do in the wild. She gets along very well with the much smaller free-tailed bats and is always seen huddling close to them! For school programs and community events, we created unique travel enclosures to place her into so people can get a closer look at those giant ears.
Vesper currently lives behind the scenes at Lindsay Wildlife so be sure to check out our daily programming for a chance to see her up close.