You found a bat where?

[Catherine]

A Toronto man had an interesting bat encounter when he went to use his bathroom. There was a bat swimming in his toilet.
The bat was rescued safely and seems to have flown away.
http://www.citynews.ca/2015/08/18/holy-h...let-visit/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/to...-1.3195154

All is well that ends well....except for a few questions.
How did the bat get in the house and what was it doing in the toilet.
I have never heard of bats swimming and most homes have screens on their windows.
We do have weird and wonderful wildlife encounters in this city.

[Tobi]

A bat did come down my chimney once. I saw it fly out! Fortunately there wasn't a fire lit. So platy, that idea is likely (if the man had a chimney in his house) And this would be the time of year people wouldn't light fires.

I found a bat yesterday, sleeping on the floor in a corner next to my back porch. The sun was very hot there, and I could see the bat was actually panting! Yet it also seemed asleep. So I got some huge leaves and laid them across the corner to give it some shade, and left it in peace. In the morning, the bat was gone. Nothing had disturbed the leaves, so it must have woken up and gone out.

The day before that, a shrew fell down my chimney! Poor little thing. It seemed well and unhurt but terribly scared about where it suddenly was! It was running about all over the room, panicked. I caught it in a mug, put a card over the top and laid it gently on the grass outside. Before it left it looked up at me. I swear it said "What the heck?? I was just climbing on the roof, and suddenly I ended up in a different dimension with GIANTS!"
Then it ran away! LOL

[Catherine]

We have chimneys in Toronto because everyone has gas or oil furnaces. They are capped to keep the racoons and squirrels out. There could be a fireplace chimney as well and it might be more accessible.
It was a little brown bat and they are very small. They can slip through very small openings. Maybe a vent for a dryer or air conditioner would have a small gap. I haven't heard how the bat got in.
This article has better pictures of the bat after the rescue. He really is a cute little brown bat.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/toil....tu6D7qM2d

I really like the man's response to finding the bat. He realized right away that the bat was in trouble and rescued it from the water.

Tobi, do you have the same kind of bats? I am glad you gave your little bat guest some shade. It must have gotten lost to end up on your porch.

Poor little shrew falling down your chimney. He must have been so confused. I am glad you got him out safely.
Land of giants indeed.

[Tobi]

Yes that bat may be a Pipistrelle. We have those. They are very tiny and can easily squeeze through tiny gaps. They are very gentle little creatures. I picked one up once, and it didn't bite me.
I see them flying every night in the summer months, when the sun has gone down.

Goodness knows what that shrew was up to! It might have been in training for a Shrew Everest Expedition....as to get down my chimney means scaling the walls of my house, and up the roof.
I have had shrews in my house before, but usually they have come through the front door!

[Catherine]

They are not the same kind of bat. You have the common pipestrelle bat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_pipistrelle
This is a really common bat right across Europe into Asia.

We have something called the little brown bat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_brown_bat


I think your bat is a little smaller.
Both are great insect eaters. I see ours flying at dusk catching insects. They have a particular cry.

I would think that they both fill a niche in their ecosystem that is very much the same.
I think they are cute in their own way.

[Tobi]

Oh right! I got that wrong then. Didn't notice the size scale! Not a Pipistrelle, but a brown bat.

[Catherine]

Quote:Oh right! I got that wrong then. Didn't notice the size scale! Not a Pipistrelle, but a brown bat.

It was a good assumption on your part. If this had been an English story it would have been a Pipistelle. They seem pretty similar and I think their habits are alike.

I love watching the brown bats fly at dusk. Sometimes there are a lot of them. They have a high pitched cry, but it is a pleasant sound.
They are all over my neighbourhood, but I have no idea where they roost. Yet another thing to watch for, while I am looking for wasps nests.