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Burgers’ Zoo counts and determines the sex of dozens of bats

The animal caretakers of the covered rock desert, Burgers’ Desert, tackled a not-so-everyday task on Thursday, 28 April 2011. Once per year all the Seba’s short-tailed bats have to be caught with a butterfly net for the annual count and to check them for gender in order to divide them into colonies at Burgers’ Zoo, the Arnhem animal park. Normally speaking twice as many males are born to these bats than females, so this will cause the sexes to grow out of proportion. After counting the bats Burgers’ Zoo will determine if a part of these nocturnal creatures will have to be separated at an alternative location in the park as just a group of males. In the wild single males also look to each other for company in groups of males as an excess of males already exists.

Results of the count of 2010
In 2010 a total of 124 males and 82 females were counted. In the mean time the animal care takers of Burgers’ Zoo have regularly seen young bats again. Because normally more males are born there is a good chance that the proportion between males and females has tipped the scales again in favour of the males in 2011. In that case a group of males will be housed separate from the existing population of bats.

Not dangerous to people
Seba’s Short-tailed bats are originally from Central and South America and primarily eat fruit and sometimes small insects in the wild. At Burgers’ Zoo they get a meal of fruit with mealworms, extra vitamins and minerals. In principle the bats are too small and not strong enough to bite through human skin. After they are caught the animal caretakers handle the bats with extreme caution in order not to hurt the little creatures. By closing off their sleeping quarters the bats can be caught one by one in the butterfly net, at which time their gender is checked and all the creatures are counted.

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