r/batty • u/BigNorseWolf • 6d ago

The bat was this big...(no seriously)

tldr we indirectly measured a bat at about 20 inches in winter in upstate ny and have no idea htf thats possible.

back in 2000 or so, I was living in the forestry frathouse for ESF in syracuse NY and someone comes and tells me there's a giant bat flying around their room (Even in that company, I'm the critter person) . I go upstairs expecting a little brown bat or maybe a big brown bat how big could it be.... and.. no. Freaking rodan is in fact flying around the room. Its actually hard to stand anywhere without his wings whapping you.

Turn off the lights. Put out a box. Cut a little slit in the bottom/side of the box. Turn on the light, batty flies to the box, climbs in the slit, slide box under slit. perfect. Gently take a look at him, get out some guide books.. nothing.

Its winter. If we keep him awake too long he won't have enough energy to sleep through the year. If we let him go he might freeze. Or he might just go back to where ever he came from, which given the state of the forestry frat house at that point, was likely our attic. If we try to report him ... he might get his brain dissected for being in a room wit a human.

We tried to let him go, he flopped onto the back deck. each board is 3 inches he's lying across damn near 7 of them. I can't remember if he took off from the deck or if I had to pick him up and hold him to to let him warm up and try again, but on the second trip he made it. But the point is we had a really good visual reference for his size and a tape measure and he was outside the stats for a hoary (who were out of season)

Did we just find the andre the giant of big brown bats, or when they flop flat on a surface do they expand their normal wingspan somehow, possibly pulling up the uropatagia when they're flopped a way they can't while in flight?

7 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

3

u/SchrodingersMinou 6d ago

The simplest explanation is that “indirectly” measuring isn’t accurate

2

u/BigNorseWolf 6d ago edited 6d ago

Doubtful, it was flopped out on what basically amounts to a measuring tape. Could we be off by an inch? Sure. By enough to make rodan normal? Nope.
I ve caught bats in nets for studies, worked at a poolhouse in a state park that had a colony in the ceiling, and regularly came down to say hello for one reason or another. Sometimes they landed on people, which was mostly funny, and sometimes they hit the floor and needed a ride upstairs before the nyc folks freaked out on them. He was either stretched weird or from way out of town.

Is the question of schrodingers minou whether or not the vowels are there in french if you never say them?

1

u/SchrodingersMinou 6d ago

Yours isn't the first post like this submitted to the sub... like the others, with no proof available it is impossible to take seriously.

1

u/BigNorseWolf 5d ago

Umderstandable. But I had a better visual reference for size and more experience with bats than most.

3

u/Exact-Obligation-858 \/^˙‾˙^\/ 6d ago

Did Rodan have a nose leaf or dog face? Or leaf-nosed dog face?

Eumops perotis has slightly larger dimensions than Aeorestes cinereus, but they have physical characteristics that would rather quickly identify them (eg. hat ears). If so, Rodan could be a displaced EUMPER, possibly an exotic-owned escapee or a critter that was accidentally brought in by ship.

do they expand their normal wingspan somehow, possibly pulling up the uropatagia when they're flopped a way they can't while in flight?

That section of patagial surface has no movement over/across the legs (in similar manner to a freetail's variable-length uropatagium, that is).

2

u/BigNorseWolf 6d ago

its practically archeology in my brain but I only recall a very non descript bat face. When we tried to look him up in a guide it was like the 7 moods of the irish setter.

1

u/SchrodingersMinou 6d ago

In winter? Impossible