Can I handle a dead bat safely?
August 23, 2015 4:41 PM   Subscribe

I was out hiking today and found a dead bat along the trail. I picked it up with a plastic bag (as one would dog poop) and wrapped it up and put it in my pack. Now that I'm home, I want to look at it closely. Can I do this safely? (without getting the plague or rabies)

In northern New Mexico, USA, fwiw.
posted by falsedmitri to Pets & Animals (11 answers total)
 
It's not super likely but bats can carry rabies, so I would be hesitant to have much further contact with it, and I definitely would not bring it inside my house, or anywhere near pets/children/other people. Also, fleas/mites are a real possibility.
posted by WidgetAlley at 4:45 PM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks. Should have mentioned, its outside right now. Away from pet/children/other people.
posted by falsedmitri at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2015


There have been multiple bats confirmed to have rabies in northern New Mexico in 2015.

You can get rabies from a dead animal's saliva, though I suppose it's unlikely if you're careful. However, there is NO WAY I would risk it. I'd call my local public health department and ask if they want the bat (to test for rabies). If they don't, I'd ask them how to safely dispose of it.
posted by insectosaurus at 5:01 PM on August 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


Absolutely not, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Call animal control and have it taken away and checked for rabies, especially since you have handled it more closely.
posted by SLC Mom at 5:30 PM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


No one can guarantee it will be safe for you to handle the bat, but I personally would feel pretty safe doing it, especially if I didn't touch it with my bare hands.

Even if the bat had rabies, it has probably been dead long enough that the virus would no longer be alive. It doesn't survive long in a dead animal in warm temperatures. According to this page, it can't survive for more than 24 hours at a temperature of 70° F. (This page says it can survive for months at freezing temperatures, though.) And even if the bat had rabies and the virus was still alive inside the dead body, it would be hard for you to get it just from handling the bat. You would need to get some saliva or nervous tissue into an open wound or your mucous membranes.

I wouldn't be too worried about any other disease it might have had. Plague is generally spread by rodent fleas. (And bats are not rodents.)
posted by Redstart at 5:33 PM on August 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


You will learn more about bats from reading the wikipedia page on bats than you will from looking at this one bat.

What are you hoping to do here? Just poke at it a bit? Move its wings around some? Dissect it? I understand the allure, I've done some exploratory critter poking in my day. But I don't think this is going to be the experience you're hoping for. It's a dead small thing. A decomposing small dead thing. Its small, dead, decomposing limbs are going to be stiff and aren't going to move in any sort of satisfying way. Trying to move a wing to see how a wing works might rip the flesh open, and then you'll have a small, dead, decomposing thing open, stinking, and oozing right there in your face.

Risk of disease and safe handling questions aside, you don't want to do this.
posted by phunniemee at 6:12 PM on August 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


I just attended a bat talk recently, and the woman told us about white nose syndrome which is spreading very quickly across the U.S. among bats. While it's not the same as rabies, I'm unsure if it's communicable to humans.

Just a data point. I would worry about rabies, though.
posted by onecircleaday at 7:17 PM on August 23, 2015


White nose syndrome doesn't appear to be communicable to humans.
posted by Redstart at 7:28 PM on August 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I don't know how great the risk is, but considering that bats are a fairly common carrier of rabies, there's definitely some risk. Handling a potentially infectious dead animal can be done safely, but doing so requires some training, and even then there's always some risk of exposure. I wouldn't advise it to someone who isn't sure they know what they're doing, but only you know your level of risk tolerance.

If you do decide to examine the bat, I strongly recommend you wear latex or nitrile gloves to do so. And, you should treat the bat as though it were highly contagious: anything the bat touches (including your gloves) is "dirty," and anything that something dirty touches also becomes dirty. If you need to touch something clean once your gloves are dirty, you need to change your gloves for a fresh pair. Once you're done, if there are any tools or surfaces that the bat came into contact with, clean these off with household bleach. And finally, if while handling the bat you accidentally expose yourself to any of its body fluids, especially saliva, then you MUST go to the emergency room and ask them to treat you for a potential rabies exposure. You can be treated for rabies shortly after exposure, but by the time you start showing symptoms there is no treatment, and it's often fatal. Bring the bat with you so they can test it for rabies. Also, be aware that the teeth and claws can puncture your gloves and expose you, possibly without you even noticing. If you think it's possible this has happened, you can check by removing your glove and filling it with water; if any leaks out, there was a puncture and you should assume you've been exposed. All of the above is to say, basically: there's a lot of things to keep track of in doing this safely, so if this is just about satisfying idle curiosity, it might be better to let this one go. If you go on enough hikes, there will be other animal carcasses, some of which will be less likely to harbor rabies.

Also, to echo phunniemie's advice, if the bat has been dead for more than a little while, then if you want to do anything more than just look at it, it's going to get pretty gross pretty quick, so consider your tolerance for grossness as well.
posted by biogeo at 9:46 PM on August 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


I would not. In addition to rabies, there's also the exciting chance that poor Mr Bat may be carrying a hantavirus, which is transmissible to humans by contact with saliva, urine or feces. Hantavirus symptoms include acute haemorrhagic fever that can also affect your kidneys, maybe a fatal pulmonary disease, other fun stuff. Chances your particular bat has it? Unknown. But is it worth the unknown chance just to satisfy your curiosity?
posted by Athanassiel at 6:00 AM on August 24, 2015


Also, leave the bat somewhere safe (hidden from critters) to decompose and then you can study its skeleton too!
posted by bendy at 6:56 PM on August 24, 2015


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