Los Angeles County has logged a record 76 rabies-positive bats in 2026, topping last year’s mark and pushing health officials to warn residents to keep clear of wildlife.
County health officials confirmed the new high after another busy stretch of testing, including a heavy August surge. The prior record was 69 rabid bats in 2025. The climb fits a steady upward trend in rabid bat detections that has lasted more than a decade.
Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. That is why the numbers matter to families, pet owners, and anyone who finds a bat indoors or near people and animals.
Fox Weather reported the Los Angeles County tally alongside related California cases and a rare local raccoon confirmation, plus a separate rabid beaver attack in New Jersey that left people bitten and in treatment.
In August alone, officials confirmed 24 rabid bats in Los Angeles County. Nearly one-third of the bats residents submitted for testing in that period, 32%, came back positive.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has urged people not to touch or handle bats. Officials also want reports when bats turn up inside homes or in places where people or pets may have contact.
Muntu Davis, MD, MPH, the county’s health officer, put the risk in plain terms.
"Bats are an important part of our environment, but they can be infected with and spread rabies, a disease that is almost always fatal once symptoms appear,"
Bats help the ecosystem. They also carry a virus that attacks the central nervous system. Once clinical signs start, survival is rare. That is the core public-health problem behind the testing totals.
In September, officials confirmed a rabies-positive raccoon in a residential backyard in Westlake Village. It was the first detection of a rabid raccoon in Los Angeles County since 1973.
A dog that may have had direct contact was placed under quarantine. The dog was already up to date on rabies vaccination. Four people at a worksite may have been exposed and are receiving recommended follow-up care.
Health officials noted the raccoon may have picked up the virus from a bat. The sequence is familiar in rabies control: wildlife spillover, possible pet contact, then human exposure risk that has to be managed fast.
Across California, 314 bats tested positive for rabies in 2025. That compared with 229 in 2024, an increase of about 37%.
Santa Cruz County has seen its own jump. As of Sept. 25, nine bats there had tested positive. The county had three positive bats in 2025. On Oct. 13, Santa Cruz County released a public health advisory citing a concerning rise in exposures to rabid or potentially rabid animals, including bats.
Dr. Maris Brenn-White, veterinarian for the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, stressed the basic defense most households control.
"It is important to keep pets up to date on rabies vaccination to protect both animals and people. Both dogs and cats should be vaccinated,"
She added a second point that pet owners often forget.
"Vaccinated pets provide an important second level of defense against rabies for pet owners and other people."
That is common sense with a lab result behind it. A current shot on the dog or cat is not paperwork theater. It is a barrier between wildlife virus and the people living under the same roof.
The same reporting package included a New Jersey park attack in which people were bitten by a beaver that later tested positive for rabies. Animal control captured the animal after the assault.
The New York Post reported the beaver bit multiple people at Lake Henry in Continental Soldiers Park, including an 8-year-old boy. The child was fishing with family around 6 p.m. Sunday when the animal charged him. He tried to run, tripped, and was bitten in the upper thigh as the attack continued, Capt. Michael Blondin said.
The Mahwah Township Health Department said those who were bitten are receiving treatment and asked anyone with contact to notify the department at once.
"Individuals who were bitten are currently receiving treatment. If you have had any contact with this animal, please notify the Mahwah Township Health Department immediately,"
A beaver charging people at a lake is not normal wildlife behavior. Rabies turns ordinary animals into direct hazards. The New Jersey bites and the Los Angeles County bat and raccoon cases sit on the same rule: do not handle wild animals, and treat bites and possible saliva exposure as medical emergencies.
Rabies is a viral disease of the central nervous system. It spreads through bites, scratches, or saliva contact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is cited for the standard profile: tens of thousands of deaths worldwide each year, about 1.4 million people in the U.S. seeking medical care after animal contact annually, and roughly 100,000 Americans receiving post-exposure preventive treatment each year.
Post-exposure treatment works when it starts in time. Delay is the danger. So is casual contact with grounded bats, sick raccoons, or any wild animal acting without fear of people.
Los Angeles County’s decade-long rise in rabid bat detections did not appear overnight. The 2026 record, the August cluster, the 32% positive rate among resident-submitted bats, and the first rabid raccoon in more than 50 years are stacked facts, not a single odd week.
Santa Cruz County’s advisory and vaccine guidance point the same direction. California’s statewide jump from 229 positive bats in 2024 to 314 in 2025 shows the pressure is broader than one county line.
Do not touch bats. Report bats found inside homes or where pets and people may have contact. Keep dogs and cats current on rabies shots. Seek care after bites or possible exposures. Those steps are not optional lifestyle advice. They are the practical line between a scare and a tragedy.
The Westlake Village raccoon case already put a vaccinated dog into quarantine and put four worksite contacts into follow-up care. The New Jersey beaver left an 8-year-old and other victims in treatment. The pattern is exposure first, paperwork second.
Public health agencies can count positives and issue advisories. Households still decide whether pets are vaccinated and whether a grounded bat gets a glove and a phone call, or a bare hand.
Rabies does not care about slogans. It cares about saliva, nerves, and time. Keep wildlife wild, keep pets vaccinated, and treat every suspicious bite like the emergency it is.
