When Jeff Montgomery purchased a building on 33rd Street, he didn’t realize there were already tenants living upstairs.
“There’s something in the attic and we didn’t know what it was so we started an investigation and soon realized we had bats in the attic,” Montgomery explained.
“As soon as we realized who our new tenants were up top, we gave Melanie Elliot a call because she’s the authority in Saskatoon on bats.”
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Melanie Elliot is a wildlife rehabilitator and program manager of ecological education at the University of Saskatchewan.
“We set up Rubbermaid bins with holes on the top and they collected the bats everyday. I came everyday for two weeks to collect the bats,” Elliot said.
In total, 280 bats were rescued from the attic and spent the winter hibernating in Elliot’s basement cold-cellar before being released this spring.
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On Thursday night, the final group of 80 bats were introduced to their new roosts, made by the woodworking committee at Luther Towers.
“We’ve got three kinds of houses. The big ones are multi-chambered and they’re insulated as well,” Elliot said.
“The other two in the middle are roosting boxes and bats use them in the summer.”
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Prior to having the bats as neighbours, Montgomery admits he didn’t know a lot about them, but now he’s fully on board.
“Bats are our friends. These little guys can eat one-thousand mosquitoes a night,” Montgomery said.
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