Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I am looking forward to a nice three-day weekend. I plan on sleeping late each of those three days. And I am very happy about it. I found out that today is “World Dracula Day”. World Dracula Day celebrates the anniversary of the first publication of Bram Stoker’s book Dracula. The book was first published 121 years ago. In honor of World Dracula Day, I thought we should learn about vampire bats. Even before Europeans came to the Americas, they had stories about vampires. The early vampires were monsters, but not really bats. The association with bats came with Stoker’s book. After the publication of the book, these cute little bats got their name. The book didn’t really help their reputation, so in an attempt to improve their image, let’s learn the truth about these little critters. First, there are three kinds of vampire bats. They all live in Central and South America, not Transylvania. And all they eat is blood. They don’t eat any other food or even drink water. Because of their diet, vampire bat guano has a very strong smell. This makes it easy to find their roosts. Vampire bats don’t really want to drink human blood. They usually feed off livestock animals and birds. Since these bats are small, they only consume about a tablespoon of blood. That means that the animal they use for their meal might not even realize they have been bitten. One interesting characteristic of vampire bats is that their nose is able to sense heat, which helps them find blood vessels. Another interesting characteristic is that vampire bats can run. Their ancestors lost the ability to run when they developed the ability to fly. But these bats re-evolved to be able […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It has been a very wet one here in the DC area. It has rained and poured pretty much all week. The plants are all really happy, but I feel sorry for all the little critters. There are some pretty wet looking little squirrels in my neighborhood and I think the little bats must all be soaking too. I hope they are able to dry out soon and fly around to find some yummy little bugs to eat. Meanwhile, I have some batty math news. You know how you learn a lot of stuff in school and you wonder when you’ll ever get to use it? I often feel that way. I mean, when am I ever going to really need to be able to graph an algebraic function in my day to day life? Well, a woman named Alice Nasto has managed to demonstrate a wonderful use of some of the math that she learned in school! It’s a lot of math that I don’t understand, but it proved useful to her. Ms. Nasto is a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. She was studying hairy structures and how they trap liquids. Since the tongue of a Pallas’ long-tongued bat is covered with long, hair-like structures, she decided to study how this bat’s tongue works. She realized that all the little hairy structures on the bat’s tongue increase the tongue’s surface area. So, there is more space on the tongue for nectar to stick to. Ms. Nasto used a lot of fancy math to discover whether or not the Pallas’ long-tongued bat’s tongue was as efficient as it could be. She and her team of scientists ran experiments with four different models of sample tongues. […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I enjoyed my last week before standardized testing begins. I only have one test a week for the next two weeks, but I still wish I didn’t have to take them. I have some exciting news. The oldest common mouse-eared bat fossil ever found has been discovered in Belgium! The bones were found back in the 1990’s. They found teeth, fragments of the bat’s jaw, and some other small bones. Not only are these fossils cool to look at, they also prove that the mouse-eared bats have been flying around this Earth for over 33 million years! What is really amazing is that after 33 million years, the mouse-eared bats don’t seem to have changed much. Scientists had previously estimated how long these bats have been on Earth. This new discovery shows that they were off by about 7 million years. Researchers think that the reason the bats have survived this long is that bats are the only flying mammal. This means they don’t need to compete for food and other resources as much as other animals. Hopefully this also means that we’ll have our furry friends flying around for a long time to come. If you would like to read more about this amazing discovery, you can find the article here I would like to wish all the moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I did because yesterday was King’s Day in the Netherlands. Since I am part Dutch, I celebrated the day with some Dutch pancakes and a yummy Dutch cake. King’s Day is the birthday of the Dutch King. So, I would like to wish His Majesty, King Willem-Alexander a very happy birthday. I hope everyone in the Netherlands and Dutch people all over the world had a fantastic holiday. Since it was the King’s birthday yesterday, I thought that I would write about a bat from the Netherlands. I found an adorable bat called the Pond Bat. They are so cute! They have ash-grey or chestnut-brown fur on their backs, and their stomachs are covered with greyish fur. They live all over Europe and part of Asia. Pond bats roost in hollows in trees, caves, and comfy human house roofs and church towers. As their name suggests, they like living near water. They dive toward the water and catch gnats, midges, and caddis flies…I think the Bat Scouts could have a new Bat Scout cookie, because…eww! Like many other bats, these adorable critters are in danger. Many of their nursery sites have been lost in the western part of their range. They are doing a little better in the eastern part of their range, but they are still near threatened there. If you would like to read more about Pond Bats, you can find information here.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! The world of bats had a pretty good one. I have some very exciting news. Mr. Rob Laidlaw has finished writing his book on bats. Bat Citizens: Defending the Ninjas of the Night has already been released in Canada and will be on the shelves in the US next month! It is amazing and I’m sure you’ll all love it! The book is all about bats, the challenges they face, and how people are helping them. I am happy to report that page 29 of the book is particularly wonderful. That page is all about ME! There are a lot of interesting facts in the book, so I hope you will all read it when you get a chance. Thank you, Mr. Laidlaw for including my story in your book! And now for some more good news. I am happy to report that the Lesser Long-Nosed bat is finally off of the Endangered Species List! This beautiful bat has been on the list since 1988 and is the first bat to be removed from list due to recovery. These bats are important because they are important pollinators and seed dispersers of the Sonoran Desert saguaro cactus and of the agave plant. The fact that they pollinate the agave plant is important to the tequila producers of Mexico because tequila is made from this plant. When they were first placed on the list, there were fewer than 1,000 Lesser Long-Nosed Bats living in only 14 known colonies. Now there are approximately 200,000 of them living in 75 roosts! That is incredible news and it is all thanks to hard work by biologists and researchers in the United States and Mexico. The US Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with Mexico to work […]
Today’s blog is dedicated to the people of Saskatchewan, Canada. I was very sad to hear about the terrible accident last weekend. I know this is a very difficult time for the people of Saskatchewan and for many people throughout Canada. Please know that my thoughts are with you. I hope you all had a good week! I am happy to report that I get to enjoy a long weekend! Friday was the end of the 3rd quarter at school, so we had an early release and we get to stay home Monday! Isn’t that amazing? I plan on sleeping late and going shopping. This week, I researched bats of Saskatchewan. They have 8 species of bats there. Many of the bats they have there are the same species that we have here in Virginia. There is one special little bat that they have that is no longer found here in Fairfax, Virginia. That’s right! The people of Saskatchewan are lucky enough to still have little brown bats. They have little Lucys flying in the night sky! Sadly, all of our little brown bats have passed away due to White Nose Syndrome. I was happy to discover the little brown bats who call Saskatchewan home are doing well. For those of us who have never been lucky enough to see a little brown bat flying around, they are adorable. They have yellowy-brown to light brown fur and are smaller than big brown bats. If these bats are able to avoid WNS, they can live up to 33 years. That makes them one of the longest lived mammals for their size. If you want to learn more about little brown bats, you can find information on the Save Lucy Website: http://virginiabats.org. And now, I am happy to announce that this Tuesday, […]
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”5″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_slideshow” gallery_width=”600″ gallery_height=”400″ cycle_effect=”fade” cycle_interval=”5″ show_thumbnail_link=”0″ thumbnail_link_text=”Bats of WNS” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] The images above are white nose species we have hosted at Save Lucy. Not all species are imperiled equally, but all of them, even the more common ones, are in need of conservation action. — Ed. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Mine started off well because it was Easter. I like Easter! I got to eat a lot of candy and candy makes me happy. Sadly, my wonderful vacation and holiday had to come to an end. I went to school on Tuesday. I had to give a 10-minute speech in my English class on Wednesday. I also had exams. It was awful! Something else happened this week that was even more awful than my suffering. The fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome has been found in two new places. First, it was found in Kansas. Kansas is the 32nd state that the fungus has been found in. Several bats were found to have the disease in Cherokee County in Southeast Kansas and in Barber County in South central Kansas. This news made me very sad. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the fungus has now been found in Central Texas. It was found in the Panhandle of Texas last year and it seems to be spreading. It has now been found in 4 new Texas counties. They found the fungus on cave bats, tri-colored bats, Townsend’s big-eared bats, and on a Mexican free-tailed bat. The detection of the fungus on a Mexican free-tailed bat was particularly worrisome. Scientists don’t think these bats are susceptible to WNS, but since they migrate in such large numbers, they are worried the disease could spread further. If you would like to read […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I had an awesome one because it was my spring break. I got to sleep late every single day! It was nice to be able to relax and not have to get up early for school. But, I think I’m lucky that I get to go to school. There are a lot of people who aren’t so lucky. One girl who fought for the right to go to school was Linda Brown. Ms. Brown passed away this week at the age of 75, but when she was only 9 years old, she became the center of a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Linda Brown was the brave little girl who fought for her right to go to school. Thanks to Linda Brown and her case, Brown vs. the Board of Education, all kids in this country have the right to go to their neighborhood schools. So, in honor of that little 9-year-old girl and the many others like her, I researched an adorable little bat from her home state of Kansas. There are 15 different species of bats that live in Kansas. The Cave Myotis bat is a medium sized bat. It has brown or black fur on its back and lighter fur on its underside. This little bat has short, pointy ears. The adorable Cave Myotis bat is true to its name and loves roosting in caves. They will also live in mines, rock crevices, abandoned buildings, barns and even under bridges. If the bats can’t find a cave to rest their wings in, they have been seen snuggled up in swallows’ nests. Despite the fact that these little bats live in caves they have been very lucky and have not suffered the effects […]
I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to Sudan. Sudan was the world’s last surviving male northern white rhino. He lived in Kenya and was 45 years old. Sudan’s daughter and granddaughter are the last two remaining northern white rhinos in the world. His death brings us closer to a world without these wonderful animals. I would like to thank all the people who were involved in Sudan’s care over the years and those who are still caring for and protecting the two females. Without you, it is possible that this species would have gone extinct years ago. Rest in peace sweet Sudan. We’ll miss you. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I would like to thank everyone who has encouraged me and commiserated with me while I suffered through a long and virtually snowless winter. I am happy to report that Northern Virginia greeted the beginning of spring with a lovely snowstorm. That’s right! It snowed a whole 4 inches! Do you have any idea what 4 inches of snow does to Fairfax County? It Shuts It Down!!! Everything was closed! I didn’t have to go to school for TWO days! Sadly, the snow melted and I was unjustly forced to go to school on Friday. But, now it is Spring Break and I will get to sleep late for an entire week! While I was home enjoying my snow days, I read an interesting article about bats in Bracken cave. Scientists studying radar measurements for weather surveillance around Bracken cave discovered that Brazilian free-tailed bats are flying north to Texas from Mexico about two weeks earlier than they used to. They also found that more of the bats are staying in Texas through the winter. This research shows that bats can be studied […]
