WILDLIFE RESOURCES

MYTH

In Michigan, less than 1% of bats carry rabies. Additionally, bats are extremely beneficial to our ecosystem and are not aggressive (unless threatened- which is understandable. I also wouldn’t enjoy having a gigantic being trying to grab me. Stranger danger)

A single brown bat will consume between 6,000-8,000 insects a night!

Their insect heavy diet (mosquitos included) along with flower pollination and seed spreading impact is beyond what any pesticide/herbicide could ever provide.

Fun fact: Bats can live into their 30’s-40’s, yet their bodies remain at our human equivalent age of around 25 until they die… Imagine your body being 25 until you died of old age. No joint pain, no awkward silence when you reach down for your fallen dentures in front of a crowd. Just endless days of being young forever. Oh and you also get to fly.

MYTH

Mice are vertebrates (like us!) meaning they absolutely do have bones, they just happen to be very flexible. An adult mouse can squeeze themselves through gaps as little. as .5 inches. Oftentimes, if they can’t initially fit, they can chew their very own entrance perfectly tailored to their small round bodies.

Rodents are vigorous chewers due to their ever growing teeth (kind of like our nails or our hair) These super strong teeth allows them to chew through many types of materials and serve as excellent multitools on the go.

FACT

Opossums only have one self-defense move and that is to involuntarily “play dead”.

While this move does include an A+ definitely-dead-looking pose along with an unpleasant dead smell, opossums are also extremely vulnerable as they cannot simply turn this mechanism off in order to get away from danger.

Opossums are not aggressive despite their sharp teeth, which by the way, are made to consume a variety of foods including insects (a lot of ticks), vegetation, and