Well 1% of rabies prevalence is a lot. Numbers around 0.2 or 0.1% would be more reassuring.
Online one of the lowest estimates that i found was 1.2% rabies prevalence
I think this is battling the stereotype that most bats carry rabies. It goes without saying that you should always go to the doctor and get rabies shots if a wild animal bites you. And avoid approaching wild animals in the first place.
I have little brown bats that live in an old barn attached to my house in Vermont, USA. I can confirm that they are really cute! There’s a couple corners and nooks that they particularly like to nest in and so sometimes I will peek with a flashlight to see them all hanging out, cuddling together.
In the evening if I’m in the barn I can hear them all waking up and talking with these tiny little chirps and peeps. Then as night falls they will be swooping around the barn and flying out the windows or they’ll crawl through some small cracks between the walls and roof to head out for a night of catching insects.
The only downside is that they poop on everything, but it’s not that hard to clean up, I have a backpack shop vac that makes quick work of it. White nose syndrome has reduced their population by over 90% according to recent studies and so we are happy to give them someplace safe to live.
You are the best. They can eat their body weight in insects every night, so I hope you don’t get as many bugs and mosquitoes. White nose syndrome has indeed been devastating, so they need all the help they can get.
