A second rabid bat has been found in Banff National Park.
Parks Canada officials say a park wildlife officer found a dead silver-haired bat behind his residence in Lake Louise this summer, and sent it away for testing.
Lab results came back Sept. 27, and the bat tested positive for rabies – a viral disease transferred through saliva that affects the central nervous system and brain of animals and people.
Seth Cherry, wildlife ecologist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit, said the bat was first spotted roosting in a lodgepole pine behind the employee’s home.
“He saw it in the morning and after a couple of hours he went back and found it dead on the ground,” he said. “We collected it, submitted it and the bat tested positive for rabies.”
This is the second silver-haired bat to test positive for rabies this summer in Banff National Park.
In the first case, the bat was observed displaying abnormal behaviour at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site on the afternoon of Aug. 30.
While rabies can be fatal to people, contracting rabies from a bat is extremely rare. Bats bite less than a handful of Albertans each year. So far this year in Alberta, there have been five cases of rabid bats. Last year, 10 bats tested positive for rabies.
In Canada, bats, foxes, and skunks are the most common transmitters of the disease.
The last Canadian to die from rabies was Albertan Emil Fuyarchuk, in 2007. He was bitten in his sleep by a bat in his rural Alberta home east of Edmonton. He didn’t seek treatment and was dead eight months later.
There have been no other reported cases of rabies in bats in the past 20 years in Banff National Park.
Cherry said Parks Canada would continue to monitor the situation.
“At this point it is not a huge concern – two is a small sample size – but we’ll keep monitoring,” he said.
“If anyone sees any sick or deceased bats, call dispatch and we’ll come and collect it and send off for testing.”
Silver-haired bats are medium sized bats and, while distributed throughout North America, the species is most abundant in the northern Rockies. They appear in southern Alberta during spring and fall migrations.
The number for Parks Canada dispatch is 403-762-1470
