Unusual Cuban Refuge Appears in Key West

[Keys Treasures]

KEY WEST, Fla. -- The little furry creature that appeared out of
nowhere had Keys naturalists puzzled. They had never seen anything like
it, so they put out an alert for bat experts to help out.

Researchers had a surprising answer: The tiny animal, weighing in at
just over half an ounce, is a Cuban Fig-Eating Bat, a rare species
never seen in the United States.

What was even more surprising is the experts' theory of how the bat --
dubbed Stinky Phil for his pungent smell -- may have arrived in Key
West: blown over the Florida Straits by one of last summer's
hurricanes.

"It's a pretty big deal," said Cyndi Marks, director of the St.
Petersburg-based Florida Bat Center and one of the state's chief
flying-mammal experts. "I was surprised because it was not one of the
bats we had been expecting to find down there."

That's because the critter, also known as a white-shouldered bat, is
native only to Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Cayman Islands -- and, until
recently, hasn't even been spotted in the Caymans in close to a
century.

Flying in on storm winds is not as crazy as it sounds, experts say.
Bats themselves sometimes roam and are known to fly as fast as 30 mph.

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