(Michigan City, IN) - There were still dead bats along the Lake Michigan shoreline Monday, roughly 48 hours after they started being discovered in large numbers by beachgoers in the Michigan City area.
“They’re still up and down the beach,” said Maggie Power, 34, whose family has a summer home at the lakefront in Long Beach.
It was Saturday, when she spotted about 30 bats washed up on the sand and floating at the water’s edge during a two-mile walk with her children toward Michigan City.
If the sight wasn’t nerve-wracking enough, the full-time Chicago resident said a few dead bats floated near her while she was swimming Sunday at the municipal beach just a short walk from her second residence.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Power, who has been going to the home every summer for all of her life.
Anthony Povlock, 26, of Trail Creek said he was at Washington Park Beach in Michigan City on Saturday for about one hour before hearing someone reveal finding a bat.
Povlock said he got up and while walking around discovered at least a dozen of them within about a 25-foot radius of where he and his friends had gathered.
“It was quite strange. It’s not every day that you see dead bats on the beach you know.”
Other people along that several-mile stretch of shoreline reported finding dead bats sometimes laying in groups. So far, no estimates have been given on how many dead bats washed in from the lake.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman Marty Benson said the bats were probably migrating over the lake when caught in the late Friday night and early Saturday morning storms that contained heavy rain, high winds, and hail. He said they were likely eastern red bats, which are migratory.
“They tend to migrate in groups and, unfortunately, when they encounter storms like we had this weekend large numbers of bats can be affected,” he said.
Benson also said DNR is working to collect more information about the event.
Per the DNR, anyone finding a dead bat along the shoreline or anywhere else should not physically handle it. Instead, such discoveries should be reported to the DNR at on.in.gov/sickwildlife and a DNR biologist will reach out to individuals if more information is needed.
According to the Center for Disease Control, bats are the leading cause of rabies deaths in people in the United States.
LaPorte County Health Department Administrator Amanda Lahners said a bat carrying rabies can transmit the disease from a bite or if their body fluids come into contact with the open sore on a human or animal. However, Lahners assured the risk of contracting rabies from a dead bat is much lower, though.
She said the virus usually dies within 24 hours after the death of an infected bat or animal.
“If it’s hotter it can be less than that. If it’s cold or freezing it can last a little bit longer,” she said.
Power said she’s also upset no effort appears to have been made by local officials to inform residents about the bats and, so far, there’s been no cleanup.
Michigan City Park Department Superintendent Ed Shinn said any clean-up would likely have to be ordered by DNR since the state owns the narrow strip of land from the water’s edge to the high water mark.
In general, the high water mark is roughly where vegetation is growing about 100 feet or so away from the edge of the water.
“It varies along the shoreline and it varies from day to day,” he said.
