Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Some of you may have seen the incredible news on the Save Lucy Facebook and Instagram pages, but something very exciting has happened! Save Lucy has a Little Brown Bat! Sadly, she has serious wing damage because of White Nose Syndrome. But it’s exciting to see her because Save Lucy hasn’t seen a Little Brown Bat for several years. Save Lucy doesn’t typically name their bats because they always work towards releasing them. But, since this is the first Little Brown Bat in such a long time, I think she deserves a cute name. I can’t decide though. Should she be Lucy, for obvious reasons? Or since she has been described as having “little brown moxie”, should her name be something rhyming like Roxie?

The sad news of the week was when the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France caught fire. Because of the tragic fire, I thought I’d research a French bat. I found a really cute one. The Lesser Noctule Bat has brown fur, with darker fur near their face. They also have short, round ears that are close to their heads, and long wings. One fun fact about these bats is that they have hairy underarms. This batty feature has earned them the nickname, “hairy-armed bat”.

These bats are found not only in France, but all across Europe, into western Asia and down into north-west Africa. They are also found in the Himalayas, the Canary Islands, and of course all over France. In most places, these bats are a rare find. They usually keep to groups of 20 to 50 individual bats. However, in Ireland, they flock in large groups of up to 1,000 bats. The Lesser Noctule bat is the third most common bat in Ireland, which is considered their “global stronghold”.

Lesser Noctule Bats like to roost in forests, but they have also adapted to live in more urban areas. If they can’t find a happy home in the forest, they have been known to take shelter in buildings. Like most micro bats, these furry friends like to eat flying insects. They especially like moths and beetles.

If you would like to read more about these bats, you can do so here.

Happy Easter everyone!