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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It was really cold here in Virginia, but not as bad as some other places. Some people got snow! I hope everyone stayed nice and warm and enjoyed the winter weather. I’m hoping that we’ll get some snow here soon. I love snow days!

I have some fabulously wonderful news! I’m going to be included in a book! A very nice children’s book author named Rob Laidlaw is writing a book about bats and bat issues and he wants to include me! I am so excited!

Mr. Laidlaw writes children’s non-fiction books that raise awareness about animal issues. He also started a wildlife protection charity in Canada called Zoocheck. This will be his first book about bats, but he has written books about all kinds of other animals. You can find out about his books at http://roblaidlawbooks.com/. I’ve read some of his books and they are all great! I hope you all have a chance to read them too. It takes a long time to write a book, so it won’t be published until next year. It will hopefully be out in Canada next fall. It will take a little longer for it to come out in the US. I can’t wait to read it! Thank you, Mr. Laidlaw! I am honored!

And now, I have some wonderful news in the world of bats! Some of you probably already saw this, but it is so important that I thought it should be mentioned again…scientists have discovered that some little brown bat populations in New York are beginning to develop a resistance to white-nose syndrome! Scientists from UC Santa Cruz have been studying the little brown bat populations in New York, Illinois and Virginia. They have found that some of the populations in New York are beginning to stabilize. They aren’t exactly sure how the little brown bats are able to resist the disease, but they think they are developing something called host resistance. If the little brown bats in New York can develop a resistance, hopefully bats in other parts of the country will too. You can read about the study here.

I hope everyone has great week!