Bat Week

After getting up close and personal with Batman at Comic-con last month, Matilda had the chance to see a lot of real bats this past week. 

On Thursday a bat biologist came to our library for a little presentation and brought along Toby, a California myotis bat, to meet everyone. Toby's wings were badly burned in one of the local wildfires so he cannot fly or be released to the wild. Instead he lives with our presenter and acts as a sort of bat ambassador to meet the public. It was amazing to see how small and fragile bats look up close. Toby was a good sport and just crawled around on his dish towel, seemingly unfazed by the swarming toddler mob. 

Our next bat event was Saturday night when we went to the LA Zoo for a special after-hours bird and bat walk. It was so great to be at the zoo during the cool evening hours and we were surprised by how many animals were still out on display. I think many of them were a bit shocked to see us too, disturbing their typical "alone time." We didn't see a ton of birds, as it was getting late, but we did manage to see a bunch of bats leaving their roost for the night. Matilda was also pretty excited about the other non-zoo type wildlife we saw including several skunks and raccoons.

Matilda & I study up on our bats before the zoo walk begins.