Big brown bats have lair in Cooper Science Building at Ball State

“Sometimes have fangs and venomous bite,” labels the two lone screen-door cabinets in the Cooper Physical Science Building.

“It’s just a joke,” said Melissa Ford, a senior biology major, as she indicated the plaque.

Ford opened the screen doors and peered into the darkness as she reached into the back. Her hand emerged with a small puff of fur and a tall set of ears nestled in her palm. It was Suzy, the 5- to 6-year-old bat that lives in Cooper Science, along with two roommates.

Suzy has been in Cooper Science for four years and was just recently joined by Chocolate and Uno, two rescued male bats, in January. The bats are of the Indiana native species, big brown bat. Ford described Suzy as a sweet bat, who enjoys being scratched behind her ears.

“Like any other animal they each have their own personalities,” Ford said.

Ford is one of the students who filter in and out of the room throughout the day to administer medical treatment, make observations and feed the trio their choice grub: live mealworms.

Timothy Carter, an associate professor in biology, chooses the students for the program. All of the students have biology-related majors.

After Ford put Suzy back in her spot, she prepared to feed Chocolate a wriggling mealworm. She described Chocolate as “fat roll upon fat roll.”

“If I make him angry, you’ll hear him scream at me,” Ford said.

Ford described Uno as the “grouch,” who would rather not be handled and chatters angrily when bothered, while Chocolate is the more laid-back “alpha male.”

Uno and Chocolate came from a bat rehab center in Fort Wayne, Ind., where a man and his family work to save bats. Uno was originally found with one of his wings completely limp from an injury, and now the bat has only one wing, but is still the fastest mover of the group.

“It’s pretty well known in Fort Wayne, there’s a bat guy,” Ford said. “If you ever find bats on campus, call Dr. Carter — he is the bat guy here.”

When a bat gets trapped in Bracken Library, as normally happens about three times each year, Carter is the one who wrangles them out.

Carter has been keeping bats on campus for the educational program since 2007. Carter is the university’s only bat biologist, and he does, in fact, get the label “batman.”

His fascination began after he did research in caves and abandoned mines in the North Georgia mountains.

“They’re poorly understood,” Carter said. “One of the least-known mammals out there. We don’t know where they go, what they eat, where they sleep, where they have their young.”

Carter said the bats in Indiana are the top predators of nocturnal insects and can eat half of their weight in one night. While people may not see the critters flitting about at night, Carter said, there are hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of bats in the state.

Bats, after all, make up a quarter of the mammal species on Earth, according to National Parks Conservation Association.

“If you were to lose bats across the globe,” Carter said. “Then many ecosystems will come crashing down.”

Carter said bat populations are in decline in Indiana and across the nation due to diseases, like white-nose syndrome and wind turbines.

Carter tracks bats in the wild to collect data and add to the fight against white-nose syndrome. He said they have attributes that are unlike many other species. Bats can live to be more than 20 years old and are gifted for a small mammal.

“Bats are quite intelligent, and like any smart organism, they can outwit you at times,” Carter said.