Hey! Can we tag you?
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I have some exciting batty news! Scientists have figured out a way to study the echolocation of bats. By studying bat echolocation, they are learning about how bats hunt for…
Tag research
Sing, sing a song
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Save Lucy’s President, Mrs. Sturges, found an interesting article that looks into the mystery of bat sounds. Scientists have found that some of the sounds that bats make resemble those of birds. Out of the 1,300 different bat species, the social vocalizations of about 50 have been studied. Of those 50, scientists discovered that about 20 of them are actually singing. It’s hard to hear bats singing if you go outside and watch them flying around. This is because a bat’s vocal range is in the ultrasonic range that is inaudible to human ears. In order to hear the bats’ sounds and research them further, scientists recorded bats singing and slowed them down. Their research has shown some similarities between bat and bird songs. Both bats and birds use the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex parts of their brains to sing. Scientists believe that neural circuits also control bat vocals and how they are able to sing. Even though most bat species sing in an ultrasonic range, one species loves to sing in a range that humans can hear. The singing of the Greater Sac-Winged bat can be heard for miles. If you would like to read more about bats singing, you can find the article here. And now for a public service announcement. Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday. Don’t forget to move your clocks 1 hour ahead before you go to bed tonight.
Can engineering match the agile flap flaps??
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I was home sick all week, so I didn’t really do much. I read an article about a new study being worked on by engineers at the University of British Columbia. The researchers are studying bat flight to help them develop better drones and other aerial vehicles. First the engineers built an aluminum bat wing and putting it in a wind tunnel. They then made a 3D computer model of the wing. They are studying how air flow affects the way a bat flies. Next, the engineers will make a physical model of a bat. This model will be used to study a bat in motion. Information learned will be used to optimize drone flight. They are hoping to make drones that will fly like automated bats with flapping wings. Groups of drones will be able to fly in a flock and will be used by businesses and emergency response. If you would like to read more, you can find the article here.
What’s Up in (the sky) Wyoming?
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It was nice and relaxing. I wish it could be summer all year long! I found an article about the Northern Long-eared Bats in Wyoming. These bats are on the endangered species list and need all they help that they can get from bigger creatures like us. A group of bat researchers from the University of Wyoming drove out to the Black Hills in order to study these bats. This can be very difficult because bats are agile flyers and don’t like to be caught in nets. The bats aren’t hurt and are released as soon as they are fitted with transmitters. This study was important because the researchers are looking at where the bats live, and if any of them has come into contact with the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome. In addition to the Northern Long-eared Bats they were there to study, researchers also found Western Small-footed, Little Brown, Big Brown, Hoary bats. One of the bats they found was a mother Northern Long-eared Bat. Luckily, White Nose Syndrome hasn’t been found in the area’s Northern Long-eared Bats, but it has been spotted less than 200 miles away in Fort Laramie, and Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota which is only 65 miles away. The researchers needed to study these bats because there is a logging team nearby. They were worried because the loggers are chopping down ponderosa pine trees, which are very important to the area’s Northern Long-eared Bats because they are used for maternity roosts. In order to make sure that the loggers don’t cut down any trees being used by the bats, researchers capture the mothers, glue trackers on their backs, and follow them back to their homes. The researchers were happy to […]
Up with the Resistance!
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I am now officially on winter break and I plan on enjoying myself immensely. I hope everyone else is able to enjoy their vacations and that you all have a wonderful holiday season. I read an article about researchers who are trying to find the origin of White Nose Syndrome. Scientists at Northern Arizona University and the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center used genomic sequencing to figure out where the fungus that causes the disease originally came from and how it is spreading. Up until now, there has been much speculation that the fungus originated somewhere in Europe or Asia. The scientists wanted to know its true origin, and hopefully gain some insight on how to stop it. By analyzing the genome of the fungus in samples from Europe, Asia, and North America, they found that there was a big difference between the fungus found on North America and the one in Europe and Asia. They discovered that there was a lot of diversity between the samples found in Europe and Asia, but almost none in North America. This helps prove the theory that the fungus was recently introduced to North America, and has been in Eurasia for much longer. One interesting fact is that the Eurasian bats have adapted and developed a resistance to the disease. This gives scientists hope that bats in the United States and Canada may be able to do the same. If you would like to read the article, you can find it here.
Do robots dream of electric bats?
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone I hope you all had a good week! I found a really cool article about how scientists are studying bat echolocation to help with all kinds of things. The US. Navy is making a new sonar for their ships. The new sonar is going to be based off of how bats echolocate. The Navy ships already have sonar, but it isn’t anything like a bat’s. Even though a bat only uses its two ears and a Navy ship uses complicated sonar arrays, bats still have a better idea of what things are. Using information learned by studying bats, an engineer built a prototype that goes on the nose of an undersea robot. The new device can interpret returning sonar echoes like a bat’s ears. It will also be cheaper, and smaller than their current model. Much like the US Navy, researchers in Israel are also information learned by studying bat echolocation. But instead of using the information to help the military, they are using it to help farmers. Farmers sometimes have trouble knowing how much food they are actually going to get from the plants in their field. Some years, crops might yield more food than others and it is difficult for a farmer to estimate how much they will have from year to year. This makes it difficult for them to determine a good price for that year’s crops and how […]