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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony Hi everyone! I’m sure everyone has already heard about the terrible earthquake that hit Nepal last weekend. Thousands of people have died and many, many more are injured. I’m very worried about them because my grandmother has some very good friends in Nepal. The conditions there are terrible right now, so I want to wish them the very best and dedicate my blog to all the people of Nepal this week. My thoughts are with you all. Since we’re talking about Nepal, I thought it would be nice to research Nepali bats this week. They have some really neat bats! I think my favorite is called a painted bat. It has nice warm fur that is very black and orange. The colors are very defined. I think the painted bat looks beautiful! They also have horseshoe bats with very interesting noses, leaf bats, and fruit bats in Nepal. There are a lot of websites about all the Nepali bats, but the one I liked most was Bats of Nepal. It is written by the Nepal Institute of Forestry and has a lot of information and some really pretty pictures. And now for Save Lucy news…a whole bunch of the bats that spent the winter with the rehabilitators are well enough to be released soon. They have been flying around the flight cage and are very excited about the nice Spring weather. I hope they all do well once they are released.
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Earth day! The bats here at Save Lucy sure did! They ate a lot of mealworms to celebrate. I had left-over birthday cake…not mine :’(, but still yummy! I hope you all did something equally festive to celebrate the Earth and all its creatures, especially bats. Also, I learned a very cool thing. I was reading National Geographic and I found an article on Mexican free-tailed bats. Bats use echolocation to find food but Mexican free tailed bats can also send out a jamming signal. They use it to interfere with other bats signals. If a bat is following a bug, other bats can also hear the echo. If another Mexican free-tailed bat hears the signal it sends a jamming signal to interfere with the first bat’s signal giving bat #2 a chance at getting the bug. But bat #1 can also send a jamming signal to bat #2. So, it goes back and forth until someone gets the bug. I wish Freda had a free-tailed bat like herself to talk to. It would be fun to watch them jam each other’s signals. Plus, I think she’d like to have a friend to talk to. The humans taking care of her do their best, but their bat squeaks have a very strong human accent. I hope everyone has a great week! [For more information about the amazing sonar jamming skills of freetail bats read all about it here!]
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! Yesterday was Bat Appreciation Day! I hope everyone enjoyed their celebration. I know the bats here at Save Lucy did. They don’t really need much of an excuse to ask for extra mealworms. They think they’re so yummy. But it was nice for them to have a good reason to have a celebration dinner. Now for the sad news. It’s very sad news. Fierce, one of Save Lucy’s little tricolored bats, passed away. He was a good little bat and I’m sad. Gladys misses him very much. They made such a lovely little couple. Since all of Save Lucy’s bats love to write poetry, Gladys decided to write a poem to express her grief. Ode to Fierce By Gladys I miss you my love. You treated me like a dove. Now I’m alone; I just want to moan. With whom will I share my mealworm? With whom will I watch them squirm? Fierce, my friend you are gone. You were as handsome as a swan.
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! Happy Virginia Cave Week! It might not be the most festively celebrated of weeks, but it’s still important. “Why is it important?” You ask. It’s important because bats live in caves. Virginia actually has a lot of bats that live in caves. They are the Gray Bat, Small-footed Bat, Little Brown Bat, Northern Long-eared Bat, Indiana Bat, Eastern Pipistrelle, Big Brown Bat and the Virginia Big-eared Bat. I think all of them are really cute. I would love it if you commented about your favorite bat. Maybe everyone could research some Virginia cave bats as a way to celebrate this very special week. And maybe next year we should all try and be a little more festive. I mean…it could be an excuse to eat cake! We have another chance to be festive next week! Bat Appreciation Day is April 17! Now, if that isn’t an excuse for a party, I don’t know what is. I think I’m going to need some cake for this one. I wonder how the little bats are going to celebrate. [Join Save Lucy and the Front Royal Grotto for VA Cave Week kickoff on April 19, 2015 from 1–4pm. See event information here. –Ed.]
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! I have news, but I can’t decide if it’s good news or bad news. The federal government has decided to list the Northern Long-Eared Bat as a threatened species. I think it might be good news because the little bats will get some protections from the government and hopefully some extra help. I think it’s bad news because the poor little bats need the help. So I’m torn…good news or bad news? I would like to wish a very Happy Passover to those who celebrate! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! And Happy Easter to my readers who celebrate the holiday! I hope the Easter Bunny brings you lots and lots of yummy things! Maybe the little bats here at Save Lucy will get some tasty chocolate covered mealworms! I’m sure they’d all love that.
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I am very happy to report that Mrs. Sturges was featured as the Woman in Bat Conservation this week by Bat Conservation International. I was very fun to read about her because she is obviously my favorite “bat lady”. I am sure a lot of you already read about her, but just in case you didn’t, here is the link. http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/news-room/the-echo/896-women-in-bat-conservation-leslie-sturges I think one of the important things that she says is that there are many ways to raise awareness of bats. She suggests talking to your neighbors about how awesome bats are and how we shouldn’t be scared of them. I think it’s amazing how many people are scared of these awesome little critters. You all obviously love them, so please help spread the word that bats aren’t gross or scary. We need them and they need us. Congratulations Mrs. Sturges!!! You are awesome!!!
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a nice week. It was nice and warm here and I thought the bats would all be happy, but then it snowed. It didn’t snow a lot, but it was enough to make me cold. The bats were very cold too. I think they decided to stay nice and snug in their little roosts. Hopefully it’ll be nice and warm soon and they’ll be able to fly around and eat some juicy bugs. The bats at Save Lucy are waiting for warmth too. I thought you all might want to know about an awesome thing that Bat Conservation International is doing. Some of you probably already know this, but just in case some of you don’t, they are featuring a different woman who works with bats every day this month. Some of the stories have been really interesting. I’m waiting for Mrs. Sturges from Save Lucy to be featured! They promised, so it should be soon and then I’ll know someone famous! I’ll keep you posted, but you should all check out their website so you can read about all these interesting women.
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! This week has been very nice and warm. I think all the little bats are happy again. I haven’t seen any yet, but I think there will be some juicy moths and other bugs flying around real soon. Hopefully a lot of the little bats being taken care of by Save Lucy will be able to fly free soon. I think that would make a lot of little bats very happy. I think some people at Save Lucy will be happy too. Everyone has been working very hard keeping all the little bats fed and healthy. Here is a poem written by little 2015-20 who you met last week. Keep in mind that not all bats are extremely poetic, but I think he did a pretty good job for a first try. Flying Free A bat with nail polish. It just cannot be! Oh, when will I be able to fly free? A while ago I was so cold. I was hungry with no food to eat, truth be told. The two legged creatures took care of me. They fed me and cleaned me and kept me healthy. Now, the weather will soon be warm. Maybe I can move out of the bat dorm. When things get better, they’ll take the polish off. There will be no more eating mealworms out of a trough. I’m grateful for all they’ve done for me. But I’m looking forward to the day that I’ll be Flying Free!
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! It’s been another cold week around here. Personally, I love the snow days! I haven’t been to school for a whole week since the middle of December! For me, winter is awesome, but the little bats are having trouble surviving all this cold weather. Save Lucy has been getting a lot of bats lately. One little bat is named 2015-20 (most bats get a number instead of a name). He is a very young big brown bat. He weighed only 9.2 grams when he got to Save Lucy, and was thin and hungry. He’s such a tiny little guy that his ‘normal’ weight is only about 11 grams. A ‘regular’ sized big brown can be up to 18 grams (which is only about 7 pennies!). Little 2015-20 seems to be doing well and will hopefully be healthy enough to be released when we finally get some warm weather around here. One reason Save Lucy is getting so many little bats this winter is because there were a lot of late pups last summer. They had enough time to learn to hunt and put on a little fat, but still aren’t able to make it through this crazy winter without some help. We haven’t had any really warm days yet, so there aren’t any yummy moths out for the bats to eat. All the water is frozen too, so the little bats are hungry and thirsty and can’t go back to sleep. It’s supposed to get warmer in the next […]
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 used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! It’s been another cold week at Save Lucy. They have gotten a lot of bats that are having trouble making it through the long winter. They’ve gotten about 30 bats in so far this year. That is in addition to all the bats they were already taking care of. That’s a lot of little bats! Hopefully most of the little bats will be feeling better soon and will be able to be released once the weather warms up. There is one little guy who probably won’t be able to be released. The person who found him named him Nicky and he’s adorable. The poor little guy has a broken arm. He probably won’t ever be able to fly again. I really hope he’ll feel better soon. He could make a cute little education bat. [We will carefully assess Nicky’s ability to have a good quality of life in captivity. If he does not adapt to his injury or if he will be in pain, we will have to say goodbye to him and send him to batty heaven. It’s a hard choice, but the well-being of the bat has to come before our feelings.–Ed.]