The Dark Knight Rises: A Bat In The Building

The Dark Knight in our Building Foyer

I was working on my  PC at home when my daughter announced ” Papa there is a Bat in the building foyer”

Without thinking I replied ” Some kid must have left if , may be he will come back to take his Bat back”

“Papa it’s not a Bat, it is real BAT”, she emphasized

“hmm, must be a grown up kid then, if he is playing with a real Bat”, I mentioned

“Papa you are not getting it, it is a real BAT, the one that flies in the night like the Batman the dark Knight“

Now I got some idea what she was talking about, it appeared there was a small Bat in our building foyer.

“Well it will go away on its own” I told the kid

“No Papa its been there for some time and it is not moving”

So I decided to investigate and went to the ground floor foyer of the building.

From a distance the bat appeared like a black spot on the creamy floor of the building. I  approached it slowly as not to startle the poor creature. It did not move, assuming the worst, I took out my Nikon D7000 and clicked some pictures. It appeared pitch dark and no details were visible.

Then I used the flash and this second picture was taken ( a lot of adjustment was done in light room to get some details). During all this photo-session the poor creature remained still without even batting an eyelid ( pun unintended).

I was not sure what to do. I looked around and the whole sequence played in front of my eyes.  The little Bat must have entered the building foyer through the gate chasing a juicy insect that was attracted by the bright light bulb in the foyer. I am not sure if the Bat was able devour the bait that lured him in to the foyer, but soon he must been disoriented with all the glass around the foyer. In his bid to escape he must have banged on the glass and fallen on ground, in a state of shock. I carefully picked him up on a large sturdy leaf, making sure I do not hurt his delicate skin that works as wings in case of bats. If the skin  folds used for flying are damaged, the Bat can not fly and will soon die of starvation or will be taken by predators.

But surprisingly the moment I tried to pick him up, he fluttered the wings, and suddenly rose to the ceiling of the foyer I am not sure I was more frightened by the scream that came from the kid or from the seeing the dark Knight rising. I quickly opened all the windows and door to the foyer and tried to shoo him away from the window. I think the fresh air that gushed from the window guided  him and after banging on the glass a few times he got it right and flew away from the window.

For some reason he came back and  settled on the window outside giving me this picture below. Not a good picture, as it was taken from behind the glass to not disturb him,  my first for a bat with some view of its wings spread.

I have clicked hundreds of bird pictures, but this only my third opportunity to click a bat. Only twice earlier I had clicked bats once in Sultanpur bird Sanctuary, and once behind Chilkur Balaji Temple, as you walk towards Gandipet Lake.  The moment I clicked the dark knight he once  again took flight and vanished into the darkness of night, perhaps chasing another juicy insect.

Though I am not sure what species of bat this little one is, and whether it is a insect eating or fruit eating bat, so my theory on chasing an insect could be wrong also.  Here are 2 resources that give great information about Bats of India, surprisingly both are not from India.

1.  Bats Magaznie: Bats of India

2. Harrison Institute: Bats of Indian Subcontinent

Not much information and research is done on Bats, and most species of Bats are classified as Vermin in India as per the Indian wildlife act.

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