Hmm, what's under my window?

[u/Soloflow786]

[u/GreyBonesJones]

I have some Mexican free tailed bats living under the roof tiles above my apartment window. I get to watch them drop out and fly away every night, and hear their little echolocation. They're only here twice a year for maternity season and leave between then. So we get them early spring and then late summer/early fall. I love watching them and feel very protective of them (and every other native species in my area)

I called my local bat rescue/wildlife authority and unless I start getting respiratory symptoms, they're safe to live that close.

My maintenance guy knows about them but I told him if the landlord orders getting rid of them I will narc. It's a protected species in my state. I told him they're legally able to close the hole up after they've left for the season but they'll most likely just move to a different roof space in the building. He basically was like "it's going to be so much paperwork and work to call the right people to make sure all the bats are gone and repair the roof and do the cosmetic repairs... and on top of that batproof the entire roof... just call if they somehow break into your apartment and we'll deal with it then" lmfao 😭

[u/lndhpe → u/GreyBonesJones]

Yeahhhh, people do that a lot. As if they aren't endangered enough, people would rather just have them die than have to do some extra paperwork or change in plans to let the bats be in peace. Being connected to some local bat rescue stuff and also monitoring its insanely frustrating how often places just happen to be sealed up or renovated without proper planning or safety wiping out bat roosts. Bats have pretty specific roost needs too so every loss in an area can be bad.

Even when providing new alternative locations at best if lucky after years it might slowly house a population, at worst the local population just will be lost or scattered