Our Blog

Information, musings, and news about Bats

Not a pest; needs no ‘control’

Summer should be a time of joy for nature lovers. Young wild animals are venturing out and learning important lessons so they can carry on their species. For us, the skies should be full of young bats on their early forays, following their mothers as they observe her hunting.

A Plea from President Leslie

As we alerted you a couple days ago, there is a bill in front of the Virginia House of delegates, SB 1390, that authorizes anyone to release feral cats onto the landscape. We understand the reasoning behind the bill as it protects animal shelters and their volunteers who administer feral cat projects. But the bill has serious issues. There are no guidelines or guardrails on the bill, it authorizes ANYONE to establish a feral cat release project ANYWHERE and offers NO protection for Virginia’s wildlife. We know that all of you are animal lovers and many have beloved cats of…

A Plea

One of the recurring themes of #BatWeek is to be a #BatHero. I want to take a minute to talk to you all about that. 2020 has been an awful year in so many respects, but for us, while we, so far, have been lucky to not lose any people to COVID, we lost a year of bats. You may not realize this, but COVID shut down bat rehabilitation for much of the country, and many of us are still not allowed to intake or release bats. We have been forced to tell people to let baby bats die, to…

Sniff! Bye, bye little blogger…

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I have been writing the Save Lucy blog for about 7 years now, and it has been a wonderful experience. When I started writing, I was in the 6th grade and loved bats because there was a family of big brown bats living outside my front door and I thought they were the most adorable creatures I’d ever seen. Since then, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned about many different kinds of bats from all over the world and how each one serves a very specific ecological niche. I’ve learned…

Baby Bat Cam!!!!

Hi everyone! Happy 4th of July! I hope you all had a good week! I have some exciting news! The Arizona Game and Fish Department has set up a camera inside an old barn where you can watch at least five different bat species! If you want to see the bats in their home, the best viewing time is during the day while they are sure to be sleeping and not out hunting. Arizona is home to 28 different bat species, all of which are micro-bats. Most of the species have their pups sometime between May and July. If you…

Bats, love, and community

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Instead of talking about bats this week, I’d like to introduce you to an amazing artist from Richmond, VA named Kyle Sutphin. Mr. Sutphin has always been interested in helping others. In high school, he volunteered at a wildlife rescue and helped take care of racoons, ducks, geese, squirrels, ground hogs and even a baby deer. His work at the rescue began when he found a duck with a broken leg. The rescue was able to help the duck and Kyle was so impressed with their work that he began…

You bring out the music in me!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I found an interesting article about music and bat sounds. In 2018, musician Stuart Hyatt went on a field trip with his son to the Great Smoky Mountains and observed bats. Since humans can’t hear the frequency that bats use while echolocating, the park ranger used a bat detector to hear the bats. Bat detectors translate bats’ ultrasonic calls into sounds audible to humans. After listening to the bats’ unique sounds, Hyatt was inspired to record them. With a grant from National Geographic, he traveled with scientists to rural Indiana.…

Big naked what??!!?

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Since I’m preparing for a trip to South American, I thought I’d research another South American bat. The Big Naked-Backed Bat lives throughout Central and South America. It was first identified as a new species in 1842 by Johann Wagner. These bats are described as “naked bats” because their wings connect at the bats’ spines rather than their sides. Since bats’ wings are hairless, their backs appear naked even though they have fur on their backs hidden under their wings. Since these bats have such a wide habitat range, which…

So very rare and far, far away!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I graduated on Wednesday! I have been very busy this week planning for my next year of adventures. With any luck, I will have an internship very soon and then I’ll be traveling to Peru and Ecuador! Wish me luck! Since I will be traveling to South America, I have been researching bats from that area of the world. I found a really adorable bat from Peru! Incan Little Mastiff Bats have small bodies covered in dark brown fur. They have thin round ears that, unlike most other free-tailed bats,…

Who does your highlights? They’re so golden!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Thursday was my last day of school. I graduate next week! I read an article about an adorable bat that was discovered in 2014. They have lovely yellow colored fur, which gave them the name Golden Bat. Its scientific name is Myotis midastactus after King Midas, because his hand could turn anything it touched to gold. These bats live in South America, primarily in Bolivia, and so their golden color helps them blend into their desert surroundings. They can camouflage into dried grass and dead shrubs. If they had a…

Nope, you stay right over there!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I found an interesting article about social distancing. Apparently, humans aren’t the only ones who socially distance to protect others from illness. Vampire bats do too! Researchers studying vampire bats with bacterial infections observed the bats distancing themselves from other bats. Just like humans, the bats still socialized with close family members, but they socialized differently with unrelated Vampire bats. While vampire bats are very social animals who groom each other and take care of other bats in their colony, sick bats were seen to groom themselves more. The sick…

Three little genes, a lotta hope!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! White Nose Syndrome has been killing bats for many years. Scientists have been working on various ways to help bats, but so far have had little success. One species that was hit particularly hard is he Little Brown Bat. Their population has declined nearly 90% due to the fungus. However, I have some news that it’s hard not to get excited about! Researchers have found that some Little Brown Bats might be developing a genetic resistance to the disease. Some Little Brown Bats appear to have developed a difference in…