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 and enjoyed your first week back at school after the nice long break. I know…who am I kidding? Right? I hope your first week back was bearable and not too painful.

I found another interesting article about bats. It was hard to find this one. I had to sift through all kinds of baseball bat news stories. There was one about mysterious baseball bats being tied to posts in CA. Finally, I found an interesting article! This one is about furry bats, not wooden ones! Much better!!!

Scientists have figured out how bats land upside down. Bats land in a very unique way. They fly with their cute little heads pointing up and then do an extremely talented acrobatic move that puts them upside down so they can land properly. No other flying animal lands this way. Personally, I think they should get a medal. The article explains exactly how our little friends accomplish this. You can read the article here.

Basically, bats use their heavy wings and solid bones to their advantage when they land this way. Bats are very heavy compared to birds (not so much when compared to us). They use this weight to change their body’s inertia and shift their center of gravity when they come in for a landing. This allows them to flip around despite their weight.

The article also mentioned some fruit bats in Central America that don’t land upside down. They have suction disks on their wrists and ankles and roost inside leaves. That sounds like a cute bat that I might have to research further. What do you think?