Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Since it’s Hanukkah, I thought it would be nice to research Israeli bats. Don’t worry, I’m still keeping my promise to little Freda. I just haven’t found the perfect “sponsor candidate.” I’ll let everyone know as soon as I have someone in mind. So, the first thing I learned about Israel and bats is that there are a lot of them! Apparently, every part of Israel has bats living there! They have 33 different kinds of bats! I think that’s amazing because Israel isn’t really a huge country. It’s about the size of New Jersey. They have one kind of fruit bat and 32 different kinds of insectivore bats. I read an old article about Israel’s bats. The article was written last summer and was telling people about Israel’s Bat Night celebration. Apparently, people in Israel (just like here) sometimes think that bats aren’t the most awesome creatures out there, so the Israel Nature and Parks Authority uses Bat Night as an opportunity to teach people about all the amazing things that bats do for us. So, if any of you will be in Israel during the last weekend of August, they seem to have a pretty cool Bat Night celebration. You can read about it here. After I found out that Israel has so many different kinds of bats, I thought it would be nice to do a little more research. What I learned is really amazing! Scientist have discovered […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I found something that I think is really cool. Little Freda is excited about it too. You remember little Freda. She’s the one who is still looking for a celebrity sponsor. Someone is really sad that a certain comedian didn’t respond. But, that’s a story for another day. Today, we talk about airport screening! Now, I know what you’re all thinking. How could airport screening possibly be “really cool?” Well, it’s really cool because the scientists that came up with the electromagnetic detectors that airports use modeled them after the echolocation of bats. They modeled it specifically after the echolocation of Brazilian free-tailed bats. That’s the part that little Freda is excited about. As you all know, bats use echolocation to sense where objects (like yummy moths) are. Airports use the same sort of thing to see if people are hiding things under their clothes. The scanners use acoustic cameras that use a similar technique to a bat’s radar to see through clothing. You can read about it here. Now, about that other topic that we mentioned a little earlier. Freda really wants a sponsor. She is insanely jealous of the little Australian fruit bat and wants a sponsor of her own. If anyone out there has any ideas of who would want to sponsor a bat, please leave a message in the comment section below or on Save Lucy’s Facebook page. I promised little Freda that I would spend the […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! In honor of Thanksgiving, I said last week that I would write about a bat from Turkey. I did some research and I found a very cute bat! It’s called the Bechstein’s Bat. The Bechstein’s Bat is hard to find. It likes to roost in holes that are made by woodpeckers or in rock and tree crevices. The bat lives all over Europe, including Turkey. It is mostly found in the United Kingdom though. The Bechstein’s Bat is a very sneaky little bat. The sound that it makes for echolocation is very hard for its prey and predators to hear. It’s also hard for humans to detect it with their radar equipment. Being so quiet is a big advantage for the bat because it is able to sneak up on its prey without being detected. This helps the bat find yummy moths, spiders, flies, mosquitoes and beetles. The bat eats so much that it is close to the top of the forest food chain. This bat is small. He is only 4.3 – 5.3 cm (1.68 – 2.09 in) long and weighs 7 – 14 g (.25 – .49 oz). Its wingspan is 25 – 35 cm (9.84 – 13.78 in). Its back is light brown and its stomach is pale grey to white. The Bechstein’s bat’s ears are small compared to some other bats’, but they are still pretty big. I think they are adorable. If you want to read […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I thought we should all take this time to learn another interesting Vampire Bat fact. I know that a lot of people are scared of vampire bats. I just want you all to know that these bats are actually very friendly and sweet with each other. Sure, they have a rather strange diet, but that is just our opinion. They probably think our diet is weird. That doesn’t make them scary. So, in an effort to show everyone just how wonderful all bats are, including the poor misunderstood vampire bat, here is this week’s interesting bat fact: Vampire bats share blood! As you all know, they drink blood. What I didn’t know is that if one of their roost-mates is hungry, a vampire bat will share blood with it! A scientist at the University of Maryland has been studying vampire bats for many years. He says that the bats will share regurgitated blood with their roost-mates. Apparently, a vampire bat will approach a friend who is hungry and offer it food. The scientists have noticed that bats who share the most blood will be offered the most if they are hungry later. The scientist says that it is evidence that bats are generous and their behavior might ensure that they will get fed if they are hungry one time. If you want to read the article that I read, you can find it here. So, I think we should all learn […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Today’s blog is dedicated to the people of Paris, France. I hope the injured are able to recover quickly and that the people who lost loved ones find peace. I am told that Paris is a wonderful city and I hope the people who live there feel safe again soon. Hi everyone! After yesterday’s news, I thought it would be nice to research some nice French bats. I went online and found some really cute ones. One of them is the Lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis blythii). This adorable little bat has soft brown fur that is lighter on its underside and head. They have a very long tail. Lesser mouse-eared bats like to roost in caves and buildings. They love roosting in church steeples and bell towers. One thing that makes the Lesser mouse-eared bat so special is how it can hover to catch its prey. It will hover in tightening circles until it finds its prey. Then it hovers behind the insect and plucks it off blades of grass. You can read more about the Lesser mouse-eared bat here. Another bat that lives in France is the European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis). This is obviously Freda’s favorite French bat. She thinks they are cousins. They might be, but they definitely have a lot of differences. The European free-tailed bat is one of the largest bats in Europe. They have large forward-pointing ears that curl inward at the edges and they have the cutest long wrinkled muzzle. I think they look […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I hope you enjoyed your Halloween and got lots and lots of candy! The bats all enjoyed their Halloween bugs. I read an interesting article about WNS. Some of you might have already seen this news, but for those of you who didn’t, scientists have found the fungus that causes WNS in Chinese bats. Until now, scientists had only found the fungus in Europe and North America. As you all know, it is killing bats here in North America. Bats in Europe seem to have developed some sort of immunity to it. The fungus, P. destructans, doesn’t seem to be killing Chinese bats either. The scientists think that the fungus has been in Europe and China for tens of thousands of years. During that time, bats that live in those areas have developed some immunity to the fungus. The problem is that our bats don’t have tens of thousands of years to develop immunity. Hopefully the researchers will be able to figure out how the foreign bats are immune to the fungus. If they can figure that out, maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to find a cure. I hope they do because our bats need help. You can read all about it here.
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to a boy who passed away this week. He went to my school and although I didn’t know him personally, I knew of him. My sister knew him and said he was a very kind and caring person and everyone is very sad. So, Daniel, this is for you. You will be missed. Hi everyone! I hope everyone has been enjoying Bat Week! Happy Halloween! Remember to be safe tonight while trick or treating. Someone sent me a cute picture this week and I thought I’d share it with you. I’m sorry, I don’t know the original source of this, but apparently Small Fact Frog is full of wonderful knowledge that he occasionally shares with people on the internet. This time, he shared a batty fact that I think shows just how awesome and amazing bats can be. And now, since it is Halloween, Brownie the bat (remember him?) wanted to write a story about his costume. Brownie’s Halloween Brownie was really happy, tonight was Halloween. His favorite costume of all was when he went as a human, but he wanted to be something else this year and couldn’t decide what. He was flapping home from school one night while thinking about this dilemma. He landed in his cave and put his school stuff down. He remembered having a box full of costumes in his room and rushed up the stairs to look inside it. He flipped open the box and looked […]
Bat Week is here!! This is your chane to get involved in bat conservation and help with a world record attempt! Find a site near you and help build one, or more, of 5,000 bat boxes on October 31! There are lots of other things you can do to help bats during Bat Week. There is lots more information at batweek.org. If you’re on Facebook, show your support by changing your profile picture for the week . Just click the widget below!
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. As you all know, I went camping last weekend. I had a great time, but it was really cold! I am a little disappointed that I didn’t see any interesting animals. I really wanted to see some bats. I barely saw squirrels. I think the animals were all staying hidden because it was so ridiculously cold. And, maybe, just maybe, we were a bunch of loud and scary girls that they didn’t want to visit. I want to remind everyone that next week is Bat Week. Don’t forget about the world record attempt being made on the 31st. If you can, please work on building a bat house that day. I hope you all participate in Bat Week and have some fun. You could dress up as a cute little bat, or wear something bat related. I got some new batty socks today that I’ll be able to wear during Bat Week. Maybe if we all do batty things next week, people will realize how awesome bats are and they’ll start celebrating as much as they celebrate Shark Week. That’s right, the bats are still a little jealous of the sharks. And now for something really cool…A few days ago, I was talking with Mrs. Sturges (Save Lucy’s President) and she told me about something I think you should all know about too. She was talking about bat enrichment and how difficult it is to give enrichment to our local insectivore […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am very happy because I am going to be going camping this weekend! I am very excited because I will be in the woods and I might get to see some bats. It’s going to be cold, though, which makes me sad because the bats might not want to come out for very long. I wouldn’t want to be cold if I were them either, which is why I’m packing fleece, fleece and more fleece. Even if I don’t get to see any bats, I’ll at least be able to talk to my fellow campers about them. Most of the people I’m camping with don’t feel too comfortable around bats, so I’ll just have to alleviate some fears. I really do hope I see some. It would make the freezing cold a little more bearable. I wanted to know what kind of bats live where I am going, so I did some research. One of the bats that live there (around Harrisonburg, VA) is the Eastern Small-footed bat. It doesn’t live where I live, so it will be a brand new bat for me, if I see one. I think I might have written about them before. I love the name “small-footed bat!” I think it makes them sound adorable. The Eastern Small-footed bat is the smallest bat in the eastern US. It is only 2 7/8 – 3 ¼ inches long. It has chestnut brown fur with some black […]