– I wouldn’t necessarily call it grand because you realized that they weren’t doing so well. After all, we were primarily concerned with their welfare, says Tonje Kristiansen. The Kristiansen family understood that something was going on in the house in Moss when the cat started behaving strangely. Kitty Theodor refused for two days in a row to go out for his usual morning walk. He would instead sit in the attic and stare at the pipe. The family thought the behavior was strange and decided to check. – Dad opened the soot hatch down in the basement and then it swarmed with bats, says the daughter in the house, Tonje. At the bottom of the barrel were 43 flag mice. The bat is of the pygmy bat type. Photo: TONJE KATRINE KRISTIANSEN Tonje says that the family were unsure who to contact, but through acquaintances they came into contact with Rune Aae. Probably fell down Rune Aae is a biologist and teaches, among other things, natural sciences at Østfold University College. He has previously been on countless rescue missions and has especially helped many birds. But bats in pipes were new to the biologist. Rune Aae is a biologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Southeast Norway. Photo: Daphne Steketee / news – I have hardly heard of anything similar. It is not normal to find so many bats inside the pipe, they tend to hang at the top, but do not fall down and stay there. The biologist believes that it probably started with one flag mouse that hooked to the top, but later fell down. – Then it lies there and beeps. Then it attracts other individuals, so it becomes like a kind of loudspeaker effect, he says. The bats received treatment using a pipette and compressed air after days in the pipe. Photo: TONJE KATRINE KRISTIANSEN 28 survived On Tuesday evening, Aae and his volunteer helpers went to Moss and retrieved the flag mice from the pipe. They were placed in a shoebox, before using compressed air to blow them clean, wash their wings and give them water with a pipette. The surviving individuals were placed in a separate bat house, outside the home in Moss. Photo: RUNE AAE 28 of the 43 bats survived and have now moved into a bat house in Kristiansen’s garden. – Now we follow them. My parents told me that they have seen someone sitting in the house now. So now they have moved in, says Tonje Kristiansen. Biologist Aae says the bats are of the pygmy bat type. It is among the smallest, but most common, bats in Norway.
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Found a bat in a pipe in Moss – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
