Rabies season — see which animals likely to have it

This is the time of year where we start hearing reports of rabid animals. And it starts to get really creepy. I have just started to notice a couple of bats in my new neighborhood and that’s why it’s really scary to hear that South Brunswick police announced that they have found Middlesex County‘s SEVENTH rabid bat this year. The scary thing about rabies is once you start to see the symptoms it is pretty much always fatal.

Because of this uptick in rabies cases and because you’re more likely to run into animals carrying the virus during the warmer months, here's a look at some animals to watch out for and some of the animals we often incorrectly assume pose a rabies threat. For instance, only mammals can get rabies. Fish and amphibians do not. Some animals that people commonly fear contracting rabies from, like squirrels, for instance, are actually very rarely rabid.

Here’s a list of animals that are more likely and less likely to have rabies:

More likely