Tag bats

Do robots dream of electric bats?

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone I hope you all had a good week! I found a really cool article about how scientists are studying bat echolocation to help with all kinds of things. The US. Navy is making a new sonar for their ships. The new sonar is going to be based off of how bats echolocate. The Navy ships already have sonar, but it isn’t anything like a bat’s. Even though a bat only uses its two ears and a Navy ship uses complicated sonar arrays, bats still have a better idea of what things are. Using information learned by studying bats, an engineer built a prototype that goes on the nose of an undersea robot. The new device can interpret returning sonar echoes like a bat’s ears. It will also be cheaper, and smaller than their current model. Much like the US Navy, researchers in Israel are also information learned by studying bat echolocation. But instead of using the information to help the military, they are using it to help farmers. Farmers sometimes have trouble knowing how much food they are actually going to get from the plants in their field. Some years, crops might yield more food than others and it is difficult for a farmer to estimate how much they will have from year to year. This makes it difficult for them to determine a good price for that year’s crops and how […]

Illinois, a state of mine!

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I have been sick! Just in case you guys are curious, pneumonia stinks! I would not recommend it. In fact, if there is a way you can avoid it, I would highly recommend that you do so. I am happy to say that the antibiotics are working and I am starting to feel a little better now. It has been another difficult week for Puerto Rico and Mexico. Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria. Power is out to the entire island, only about a fourth of the people have water, and a dam is in “imminent danger of failing.” While Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands were dealing with the hurricane, Mexico was hit with another major earthquake. Hundreds of people were killed.  My thoughts are with the people of Puerto Rico and Mexico. With all the bad news, I thought everyone could use some good batty news. I have some great news for the Indiana bats living in Illinois. An old silica mine that was owned by the mining company Unimin has been given to the Organization for Bat Conservation. More than 45,000 endangered Indiana bats now have a nice comfy home. Apparently, bat populations living in silica mines haven’t been affected by White Nose Syndrome as much as bats living in other caves. So, the Executive Director of the Organization for […]

Such a disaster!

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It has been another difficult week for a lot of people. Not only did Hurricane Irma move through the Caribbean and Florida destroying everything in its path, but wildfires are burning in the western United States. My thoughts are with everyone affected by these disasters.   While the US has been dealing with hurricanes and fires, the country of Mexico has been dealing with its own disasters. Last week, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico. This was the worst earthquake to hit Mexico in a century. Just hours after the earthquake, Hurricane Katia hit Mexico’s Atlantic coast. A few days later, Hurricane Max hit Mexico’s Pacific coast. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to the people of Mexico. These disasters affected the entire country and my thoughts are with you all. Mexico has a total of 137 species of bats. One of these species is the Mexican Fish-eating Bat. The Fish-eating bat is an adorable bat that lives near the Gulf of California in Mexico. Instead of bugs, this bat loves eating fish and crustaceans. They have strong legs and big feet for carrying their food. They use their sharp claws to capture their prey. Fish-eating bats have brown fur that is dark gray at the base. They mostly roost in caves and crevices, but will also stay in rock slides. If […]

Houston Heroes

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.

There are currently bats in Nantucket…

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.

The Wisdom of Eeyore and Hamamas

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.   Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I have been trying to enjoy the last little bit of summer vacation. Sadly, school starts on the 28th this year, which means I only have one more week of vacation to enjoy. I hope it’s a good one! This past week has been a difficult one for all of humanity. I am at a loss of what to say about what has been happening in the world, except to say that my thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the events of the past week. A lot of people have been quoting the wisdom of great people like Mr. Nelson Mandela. I would like to remind everyone of the wisdom of Mr. A. A. Milne. He was the author of the Winnie the Pooh books and I believe that he also had a lot to say about peacefully living with others. One of my favorite quotes is from little Eeyore. He said, “a little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.” If people could just try to be a little more considerate of other people, maybe this week will be a better one. So, what do you all say? Let’s all make this coming week the spectacular week that it has the potential to be. Let us be kind and considerate and caring toward other people. Please.

Which is tastier? Scorpions or poutine?

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.

Have a drink on me!

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I thought we should all take this time to learn another interesting Vampire Bat fact. I know that a lot of people are scared of vampire bats. I just want you all to know that these bats are actually very friendly and sweet with each other. Sure, they have a rather strange diet, but that is just our opinion. They probably think our diet is weird. That doesn’t make them scary. So, in an effort to show everyone just how wonderful all bats are, including the poor misunderstood vampire bat, here is this week’s interesting bat fact: Vampire bats share blood! As you all know, they drink blood. What I didn’t know is that if one of their roost-mates is hungry, a vampire bat will share blood with it! A scientist at the University of Maryland has been studying vampire bats for many years. He says that the bats will share regurgitated blood with their roost-mates. Apparently, a vampire bat will approach a friend who is hungry and offer it food. The scientists have noticed that bats who share the most blood will be offered the most if they are hungry later. The scientist says that it is evidence that bats are generous and their behavior might ensure that they will get fed if they are hungry one time. If you want to read the article that I read, you can find it here. So, I think we should all learn […]

Bat Technology

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 7th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I found some news that I think is really cool. Apparently, bats are even more useful than I thought. Some students at Wake Forest University in North Carolina are using bats as a model for a device they are making. They think the device will be able to help blind people. The device sort of looks like a watch and uses echo location to determine where things are and how close stuff is. If a person gets close to an obstacle, the wristband vibrates. The closer the person gets, the faster the watch vibrates. It only costs $35 per watch. I really hope it works. I have a visually impaired friend who I think would love this. You can read the article here.

NASBR Teacher’s Workshop in NY

The North American Society for Bat Research (NASBR) is offering a teachers workshop at its annual meeting in Albany, NY on Saturday, October 26. Please see the flyer below for registration information. We’re presenting, as well as many other bat experts. Please share with any New York teachers you know!