Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 7th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! In honor of the World Cup, I thought it would be nice to research some bats from the 2 countries that are finalists. The first country is Germany. The German word for bat is fledermaus. I thought this little German bat was very cute. It’s a picture of a Greater Mouse-eared Bat roost. [photo unavailable] The second country is Argentina. The Spanish word for bat is murciélago. Since everyone is afraid of vampire bats, I thought it would be nice for everyone to see how cute they are. This is a White-winged Vampire Bat. Look at that cute little face! For another fun look at vampire bats check out this live vampire bat cam from the Organization for Bat Conservation.– via Common Vampire Bat | OBC.–Ed.
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you had a good Fourth-of-July! I wonder if the bats celebrate the Fourth. They might watch fireworks. Wouldn’t it be cute if they set out a picnic of bugs and worms and watched the fireworks with us. I wonder if they like them or if they are too loud and scary. The bats at Save Lucy had a good Independence Day. The little pups are doing well. A few little juvenile red bats arrived this week. They were very sad looking at first, but are doing better now. Happy Independence Day from Save Lucy!
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! School is finally out and I’ve been having fun. I wonder if the bats are enjoying their summer. The weather hasn’t been too bad, but it’s supposed to get hot during the next few days. I don’t think the little bats will be comfortable. I wanted to let everyone know that the baby bat pups at Save Lucy are doing well. They are learning how to fly. They are doing a wonderful job. Here’s a video of last year’s orphans learning to feed themselves mealworms–Ed.
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hello everyone! The people at Save Lucy were so happy when the pups got big enough to go 6 hours between feedings. They thought they could finally get some rest and then 2 more little babies showed up. The new pups only weigh 3 grams! They are so tiny! If anyone from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington is reading this, the people at Save Lucy thank you for bringing them the little pups. Of course they can’t wait until they can go more than 3 hours without eating. Soon these little babies should be healthy big brown bats. Well, here they are! Since the new pups were on the Save Lucy Facebook page already, some people have been asking questions about them. I thought they were really good questions that everyone might want to know the answers to. One question was how fast do the babies grow? The pup in the picture below came in at 4.1 grams and 10 days later he weighed 9.2 grams. They grow really fast for a mammal. That’s why the moms have to eat so many bugs! Isn’t he cute? Someone else said, “Awwww are they cold? Poor naked babies!” They do get very cold. In the wild they depend on moms and the colony for warmth until they grow fur. The rehabilitators at Save Lucy keep them in an incubator so they stay warm. Another person wanted to know what happened to their mommy. I thought that was a really good question and I think the little pups do too. We’ll never know what happened to […]
This week’s blog features Rachael’s imagination inspired by a new illustration by E. Hi Everyone. Tinybat wrote another poem! I think it’s pretty good for a little bat. Don’t you? And he did it with no help… Tinybat’s Vacation Dream On the beach I’ll lay But not in the sun of the day I’ll be in Hawaii soon To tan by the light of the moon The umbrella will give me shade My pale winter look will fade Will a bat get a burn? I’ll try to remember to turn While I sip my beetle drink The ice against the glass will clink I dream of going to the beach But for me, that might be out of reach Instead, I’ll stay here with my people And maybe eat a little beetle
Hi Everyone! I thought you might want to see the first bat babies of 2014. They are so cute and tiny! Unfortunately, one of them didn’t make it. The other one is doing well. It’s hard to raise them and take care of them all alone because they live in colonies in the wild. I hope the surviving pup continues to do well. I promise to include more baby pictures when I get them. (Update: There are now 4 big brown bat pups in house and more are being transported to us on Monday.–Ed.)
Hi Everyone, A famous poet named Maya Angelou passed away this week. She worked for equal rights. I am dedicating this week’s blog to her. One of her quotes is, “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” Even though she said this about the fight for equal rights, I thought it could also relate to bats with White Nose Syndrome. Right now, it doesn’t look good for our bats. I think that even though we are suffering through a huge defeat, if we work together, we can still succeed and not be defeated. I think that with all the research that is being done right now, they will eventually be able to cure the disease. Let’s all hope that they are able to do this before too many more bats die. And here is a happy bat picture to encourage everyone…
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hello everyone! I went to the National Wildlife Federation website and found a couple of cute bat pictures. There are more if you like them. The website is http://www.nwf.org/search.aspx . I hope you like them! (We thank our friends at NWF for sharing photos with us! –Ed.) ________________ ^^ \|/ \|/ ^.-.^
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Since the weather has been getting warm, bats have been forming maternity colonies to raise their pups. And because of that, it’s a great time to spot bats. The people at the Save Lucy or the Delaware Bat Program will train you on how to use bat detectors to find where the perfect bat spotting location is and how to do a proper count at a maternity colony. Bat spotters who are monitoring maternity colonies need to get at least one pre-volant count at their site, so you’ll need to learn how to do that. The pre-volant count period is between May 15 and June 21, so it has already begun. By the way, pre-volant means before the year’s bat pups start flying around. They need a count of bats that fly out from the roost. Once again, if you would like to help please contact Save Lucy. It sounds like fun, doesn’t it? ________________ ^^ \|/ \|/ ^.-.^ Bat Hanging Upside Down