Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I have been very busy with school and I’m looking forward to my three-day weekend. Recently, Franklin Junior High in St. Mary Parish in Louisiana has become a home to some fuzzy creatures. This is after Zachary High, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and Gueydan High in Vermilion Parish became home to colonies of migrating Mexican free-tailed bats. A United Bat Control Owner went to Franklin Junior High to have a look. She says that it is most likely that the bats wanted to keep warm as they migrate north from Mexico to their spring homes. The bats decided to take up residency in the school’s gym. To protect the bats and the students, school was closed on the 14th and the 15th. School officials might have to close the school on Monday too, if they can’t get the bats out. Right now, their plan is to close all of the school’s doors and windows while the bats are all out hunting for tasty bugs. Then, before the bats come in again, they will seal up any openings to make sure the bats stay out in the wild where they belong. If you would like to read more, you can do so here.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I found a really interesting article about bats. The article is all about the importance of background noises. Some people think that background noise is a nuisance. Bats, however use the noises that they hear outside of their roosts to plan their outings. A group of researchers decided to test how background sounds affected a bat’s hunting habits. The scientists selected two bat colonies, one being the common big-eared bat (Micronycteris microtis) and the other the Pallas’s mastiff bat (Molossus molossus), and simulated the sounds of heavy downpours. When the bats heard the sounds, they stayed in their roosts! Bats don’t like flying in the rain because when their wings get wet, they have to use more energy to fly. Scientists don’t know exactly why else bats don’t like rain, but they believe it might jam their echolocation and their ability to navigate and find their dinner. The bats in the simulation didn’t like rain and decided to stay inside. For a comparison, the scientists also simulated the sound of normal forest sounds. The bats only stayed inside when the rain sounds were playing. The common big-eared bat also sent out a bat to investigate their environmental conditions. If you want to read more about this study, you can find it here.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a great one because I had almost no school! The polar vortex closed schools and caused delayed openings. We also got a little bit of snow. The teeny bit of snow caused them to close school on Friday. We have no school Monday because it’s a teacher work day. So, I have a 4-day weekend! And now for the bat news. At an NBA game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Brooklyn Nets, a few surprise guests appeared. A group of bats flew in from an unknown entry point and stopped the game. Security guards ran onto the court and started trying to catch them with a giant net! One member of the San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili, has been known to catch these beautiful creatures. In a previous game of his, a Mexican free-tailed bat flew in and began flying around. Ginobili swatted the bat and gave it to an area attendant. If a creature, like a bat, does fly into your house or building, you should call someone trained to help in these situations. This could be Animal Control or a local wildlife facility. You should never take matters into your own hands unless absolutely necessary. Ginobili did not take the correct measures in safety, and had to get 16 rabies shots afterward. If you would like to watch the videos of the bats enjoying the basketball game, you can do so here. [Hitting a small flying animal in order to contain it is never appropriate. However, we are not sure why Mr. Ginobili had to have so many injections after his contact with the bat. Please be assured that normally, there are fewer injections. Don’t let fear of shots or needles keep you from seeking medical attention after a bite or scratch from […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Yesterday, a dam at an iron-ore mine in Brazil collapsed. Because of this disaster, I thought I would research a bat from Brazil. I found a very cute bat! It looks like a shrew that knows something you don’t. It’s called the Greater sac-winged bat. In addition to Brazil, these bats live in several other Central and South American countries. Their range is from central Mexico, through Central America, into South America. They live in the South American countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Guyane, and the Antillean islands. The Greater sac-winged bat has dark brown fur, and some have zig-zag stripes on their back. They have long noses and upper lips that are very mobile. They get their name from the small sacs or pouches on their wings. While grooming themselves, the males fill their sacs with drops of urine and glandular secretions. When they are trying to attract a female, the male will hover over her and flap the scent in their sacs toward her. They will also use this technique to ward off other bats from outside their territory. Another interesting fact about these bats is that their pups babble. They will vocalize calls and other sounds, but jumbled up just like a human baby’s babbles. This is the first mammal that is not a primate to be seen babbling. If you’d like to read more about the Greater sac-winged bat, you can find information here.
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I had a pretty good one because it started with a snow day. That’s right, it finally snowed! While it has been cold and wintery here in the US, people in Australia are in the middle of summer. And with Australian summers, come fires. Because there are so many fires burning in Australia right now, I decided to research an Australian bat. There is a cute little bat called the Chocolate Wattled Bat. Unlike most bats living in Australia, these bats are micro-bats! They have milk-chocolate brown fur, which is where they get their name. They also have a pink nose and a cute, squishy face. They like to roost under bark and in tree hollows in south-western Australia. Their diet consists of moths and beetles. And the Chocolate Wattled Bat will hibernate in the winter when the insects aren’t always around. Although south-western Australia isn’t known for being cold, it does get chilly. And with food scarce, they can’t eat enough to keep them warm. These bats do have a few predators including hawks, owls, cats, wildfires, and humans. If you would like to read more about the Chocolate Wattled Bat, you can find information here and here.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It hasn’t been a very good week for National Parks and the plants and animals that live in them. That’s because the government shutdown continues. Many parks around the country are closed, but some remain open. Many of the parks that are open are suffering because of the lack of employees working at the park. Parks are being vandalized and trash is piling up. Sadly, vandals have even killed trees at Joshua Tree National Park. There are other effects of the shutdown too. Because government employees are not allowed to report to work, wildlife conservation and research has been put on hold. That means that government research on White-Nose Syndrome in bats has been halted. Luckily, not all government work has stopped. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has halted construction on 16 miles of Oklahoma Highway 16 between the town of Okay and the city of Wagoner. The work has been stopped to give investigators time to determine whether the construction will affect endangered Gray Bats in the area. Research is needed to determine whether or not sediment from the road construction has been affecting the quality of the water in the area. This could reduce the number of insects in the area, which would affect the bat’s ability to find food. If you would like to read more about this, you can find information here. I hope everyone has a good week. And, please, if you are fortunate enough to be allowed onto National Park land during this shutdown, take care of our parks. Please pick up your trash, stay on trails, and respect the plants and animals who live there.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week and a happy New Year! To kick off the new year, I thought I would make this a happy blog post. I found a lovely article about a recently recovered bat in the Salthaven West Wildlife and Education Center in Saskatchewan, Canada. He is an adorable Big Brown bat that will be released this May. He had very severe injuries when he came in, including a facial injury that rehabbers think came from a fight with another male bat. The injury had healed, but it left a bad scar. Because of this scar, his rehabbers named him Scarface. Despite his scary name, Scarface is very calm and happy for all the help he is receiving. He is staying in an enclosure much like the ones we have here at Save Lucy. The enclosure has a few other male bats, and some places for them to hang, hide and climb. The bats at the Center are kept awake all winter, even though they would be hibernating out in the wild. They get fed lots of mealworms to keep them happy and well fed. The bats at the Center are usually released back into the wild sometime in May, as long as they don’t still need help recovering from whatever brought them there in the first place. This year, Scarface will join the pack and fly back to his family. If you would like to read more about little Scarface, you can find the article here. I hope you all have a fantastic week! Happy New Year!
We want to thank Blogger Rachael on her 51st blog post this year! She’s featured almost 30 species. Thank you Rachael. We’re looking forward to what you discover in 2019! Hi everyone! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying your winter holidays. I am enjoying my school vacation very much. Since this is my last blog post of the year, I thought it would be nice to look back at all that happened this year. It’s been a rather long year that began with the Winter Olympics in Pyeong Chang, South Korea and is ending with a tsunami and volcanic eruptions in Indonesia. In between, there were hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes, and more volcanic eruptions. It sounds like a bad year, but there were also some good things that happened. Over the summer, 12 members of a youth soccer team and their coach were rescued from an underground cave in Thailand. Not only did we have the Winter Olympics this year, but we also came together for the World Cup in July. And, in what is possibly the cutest news story of the year, an adult male koala needed to be rescued for the third time in his life when he got his head stuck in a fence in South Australia. And now, since the people of Indonesia are having such a difficult time, I thought I’d research another Indonesian bat. I found an adorable leaf nosed bat called the Arcuate horseshoe bat. They were discovered by Wilhelm Peters in 1871. He gave them the name “arcuatus” which is Latin for “curved”. Peters never said why he decided to name these bats curved, but some scientists believe that it is due to the curve of their nose. These adorable furry critters live in Southeast Asia, […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a fantastic week because it was the last week of school before winter break! I am going to enjoy the next two weeks by sleeping late and celebrating the holidays with my family. Since it is the Christmas season, I decided to write this week’s blog on a bat that, in my opinion, looks very similar to the Grinch. It took some looking but I found an adorable critter called the Little White-shouldered bat. These bats have leaf shaped noses that resemble the Grinch’s famous smirk. They have brownish-gray fur with striking white shoulders that give them their name. They also have yellow eyes that look so cool! Little White-shouldered bats have big, almost see-through, ears that look adorable atop their small heads! Not a lot of information has been collected on what these bats eat, but scientists have looked at the teeth of Little White-shouldered bats and concluded that they probably eat insects like most bats in America. They live in Central America into Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, and Bonaire Island. These bats like to roost in tropical forests near streams. They are typically found in evergreen forests. If you want read more about Little White-shoulder bats you can do so here. I also found a very cute story about how bats saved Christmas. If you would like to read it, you can find it here: I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am excited that Winter Break is coming soon. Sadly, I have to wait another week to get my vacation. I found a very interesting article on bats regarding their hunting strategies and how they vary from species to species. An international group of biologists set out to compare five different bat species. They studied a total of 94 bats. The scientists fixed each bat with a tiny recording device to look at their flight path and listen to what noises they made. The researchers used this information to discover where the bats found food and whether or not other bats were nearby. They looked at 2 species of bats that hunted socially for prey, such as swarms of insects or fish, who are found in unpredictable locations. Then they looked at three species that foraged for food alone and whose prey was always at the same location and could be found easily. The bats that foraged alone ate things like fruit and tried to separate themselves from others. If other bats were around it could create a competition for food. The bats that foraged together were much more social. The researchers found that these bats tended to eavesdrop on the other bats feeding calls and were constantly communicating with others of their own species to see if they had found food. When one bat found food to eat, others followed close behind and hunted behind them. In order to test if the bats were truly hunting together for the food, the scientists placed three recording devices around where the bats hunted. One recording device played white noise, one played a normal bat call, and one played a bat’s feeding call. When the bats heard the white noise, they mainly ignored the recording. When they heard the normal call they began to investigate, […]