Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It was the first week of school for me. For the most part, it was pretty good, but I do miss sleeping late every day. Arizona Senator John McCain passed away on the 25th. He was a senator for 31 years, before that he served two terms in the US House of Representatives. He also served as a Naval pilot in Vietnam where he became a decorated war hero. This week’s blog is dedicated to Senator John McCain. My thoughts are with his family.
I decided to write about a bat from Senator McCain’s home state of Arizona and found a very interesting looking one called the Ghost Faced Bat. This bat gets its name from the way they look. Unlike a lot of other bats, the ears of a Ghost Faced bat join at their head. The ears are large and round and connect to the head near their cheeks. This makes their eyes look smaller than usual and appear to be inside of their ears! The also have leaf shaped flaps of skin that protrude from their chin. They are very handsome!
Unlike a lot of bats, these bats live in places that don’t get too cold during the winter. For this reason, they don’t hibernate and are active year-round. And because they are content where they are, they don’t migrate either. These bats live throughout Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and into Central America. Their habitat is desert scrub and they roost in caves, abandoned mines, tunnels and old buildings. They eat insects like all other bats in the United States. Instead of foraging near water, they hunt for their flying dinner far above ground.
If you would like to read more about these amazing bats, you can find information here.
I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day weekend! I plan on celebrating by sleeping late and not laboring.