Content warning: The story below includes images and videos showing some of the dead bats that washed ashore in Michigan City, Ind., over the weekend.
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — There's a mystery unfolding in northwest Indiana, where bats washed up on the shore of Lake Michigan on Saturday.
“I’ve probably seen a dozen, two dozen, wash up on shore,” said Jay Silver, who’s a regular at Sheridan Beach. “It’s the craziest thing ever. It must have been a big die-off — something related to the storms? I’m not sure.”
Video captured by WBBM’s Mike Krauser shows the dead bats in the sand, with the waves washing over them. Some people were scooping them up with nets.
“My son-in-law took a walk, maybe half-a-mile up the beach toward Michigan, and he counted 21 bats,” said local resident Mike Haney.
Haney later said about 50 bats were scooped up within two hours. Hundreds more were found over a wider area, too.
WBBM has reached out to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for comment. Two endangered bat species are known to call Indiana home: the gray bat and the Indiana bat.
“Very weird,” Haney said. “Someone said that maybe a tree got struck by lightning … and maybe they were all in the tree farther up north. Who knows.”
Silver had a sober observation about the bats.
“I’ve seen people wash up,” he said. “I’ve never seen a bat wash up.”
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