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.

I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to Mary Tyler Moore. She was a very funny actress who passed away this week. She entertained people for over 60 years with shows like the Mary Tyler Moore Show and the Dick Van Dyke Show. I have watched a few of her shows from the 70’s and she was absolutely hysterical. My thoughts are with her family.

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a very busy one at school and I’m glad it’s the weekend. This weekend is a special one for a lot of special athletes here in VA. The Special Olympics of VA Bowling Tournament is this weekend! Athletes from all over the state are coming up to Northern VA to bowl! I would like to wish all my buddies an absolutely fantastic time! I am looking forward to cheering you on!It’s going to be a lot of fun.

And now for the bat news…I found an article about endangered Indiana bats. Indiana bat populations have declined because of White Nose Syndrome, but these bats are also dying because of wind turbines. A study published by the US Geological Survey stated that the bats might not be able to recover. The researchers looked at the number of bat mortalities caused by wind turbines and those caused by WNS. As everyone already knows, WNS has killed millions of bats. It is the largest threat to Indiana bat populations. But, wind turbines are killing the bats too. The bats are flying into the turbines during their migration flights. Combined, these two threats have reduced the numbers of all Indiana bat sub-populations.

The scientists hope that their study will help with conservation efforts. Because these bats are such valuable insect eaters, they save US agriculture billions of dollars a year. Hopefully this study will help encourage people to do what they can to help protect the bats from extinction.
If you would like to read the article, you can find it here.