So, there we were. Two enormous bats hanging on the house. No one would help us out. No one knew where the heck these things had come from. I was really annoyed with the animal control guy. I mean, that was his job, to rescue poor ordinary people like me from scary, perhaps life threatening, wild animals! Without his help I wasn't sure what to do. I hid in my house and thought about what my options might be. Suddenly I had an idea!
There is an awesome zoo in Colombus. Surely they would be interested in three foot bats. I looked up the number and quickly called. It took being transferred several times and telling my story over and over before I was connected to the right person.
Can you believe my luck!! My case was so unusual that after emailing photos to the zoo, and having the animal control people call and verify that I was really telling the truth and not some freaky crazy woman....I got to talk to the man himself.
Yep, that's right, Jack Hanna himself talked to me on the phone. He just happened to be at the zoo the day I called. A few hours later-- there was Jack at my home. He was shocked and amazed at the two bats. There are not supposed to be bats that large in North America. These two were very strange and shouldn't even exist. Duh.... Jack and his helpers from the zoo easily captured the scary beasts and said they would definitely keep us informed on what they found out about their existence.
The first thoughts were that they had escaped from a zoo or someone had brought them up from South America illegally. Then after studying them for a few days the zoo discovered they were a type of bat normally found in our area....just giant specimens.
A team of researchers/specialists was eventually called in to investigate. They began to investigate every type of place they knew this type of bat roosted. It was not unusual for these bats *in their normal small and not scary as hell ginormous size* to roost in barns, storage type buildings, and warehouses. There are many of these types of places in our area....so the investigation was looking like a gigantic challenge.
There was finally a break... chemicals found in the bats' bloodstreams led the team of investigators to one of the huge plants on the Ohio River just a few miles south of where we live. Jackpot!
The investigation turned up several more of the large species of bat roosting in the buildings of the plant. It is a well known fact that the community we live in has been fighting with this company for many years over the amount of chemicals and pollution it spews into the air. These same pollutants caused a mutation in the bats and created the monsters that showed up on our front door step.
Of course the company didn't want any of this to get out to the public....they are striving to maintain that they do their best to follow all the EPA guidelines.....sure, whatever. The story was squashed from running in the papers...and I believe a huge research grant was made to the zoo to keep things quiet . So, we don't know what happened to the other large bats. I'm assuming that there are still mutant bats out there and I keep my eye out for them in the twilight hours....
The two that were at our home are now on display at the Colombus zoo. If you are ever there you should go and check them out. I believe they are part of the Africa exhibit... they don't want people here in the US freaking out over huge ass bats...but I know the truth and now so do you!
