bats! i love them!

[moswen]

so i've always had a little fondness for bats, i really get irritated with people who think they'll eat you or give you rabies.... really if you're going to blab about something at least know the truth of what you're blabbing about... anywyas:

my husband just HAD to stop at this cave this weekend (i have some claustrophobia issues, and i really didn't want to go, but he wanted to go so bad! and i just want you all to know, no matter how many times you hold your breath squeezing through a tight space, there WILL be air on the other side! trust me, i just endured it!) and i found out the saddest informaiton on the planet! you remember the great bee demise? it's happening to bats now! there has been a huge wave of bats infected with this nasty white fungus that causes them to wake up during hibernation, and then the fungus irritates them so much that they can't go back into hibernation so they fly out of the cave looking for food (insects) and either starve to death or freeze to death. it's so sad! some cave up on the northern east coast has completely lost every bat colony it had.

here are some great bat facts for those of you who don't know much about them:

-bats eat insects. this is good, unless you like mosquito bites.
-bats are very much like humans, they cluster in social colonies and some actually commit SUICIDE if left alone for extended periods of time
-vampire bats even adopt orphans, and they also keep a little bit of their food (blood) to take back to their "roosts" to share with other bats that were not fortunate enough to find food that night
-vampire bats do NOT kill livestock, and they're NOT going to attatch to your jugular and suck you dry. vampire bats actually make a small cut on an animal, spray an anti-coagulation solution into the cut of the animal, and lap up the blood that flows out of the wound. they've never bled an animal dry.
-bats are very important mammals in every part of the planet (besides antarctica), they are NOT rare, they're just nocturnal! so you never see them!
-bats are very clean animals by nature, they're like cats when it comes to cleaning themselves. therefore, they're not even half as dirty as the pigeon that landed on your car this morning.
-bats are the only flying mammals
-bats only have one baby a year, called a "pup"
-bats are STINKIN' CUTE! (well, some are pretty stinkin' ugly. but some are precious!)

(i found these next ones online, my font of personal knowledge has ended)

-there are more than 1,100 species of bats in the world
-nearly 40% of american bat species are now listed as endangered or in severe decline
-the smallest bat is the bumblebee bat, only 2 inches long! it is native to thailand, and listed as critically endangered due to severe loss of habitat.
-the largest bat is a giant flying fox, it's wing span is 6 feet long. it is a fruit bat and native to thailand
-bats are grouped into 2 main categories: megabats and microbats.
-megabats are the larger bats and they are the fruit eating bats
-most fruit-eating bats do not have echo-location
-microbats are generally much smaller, more world-wide, they eat
insects and most fit in the palm of your hand.
-there are 7 endangered bat species native to the united states
-pregnant mommy bats move to warmer regions and form nursery roosts with a lot of other mommy bats
-some bat species can live for 40 years
-There are millions of Mexican free-tailed bats that live in BCI's Bracken Cave in Central Texas. these bats eat up to 200 tons of insects each summer night
-Worldwide crop damage from the corn earworm moth (a favorite meal for the mexican freetailed bat) is estimated at more than $1 billion a year, and recent research concluded that mexican freetail bats are so effective that they save farmers in south-central Texas up to $1.7 million a year in pesticide costs

loss of habitat is such a killer for every animal in the world today, and bat houses are such a great way to help keep these cute little guys around! you can buy bat houses online or you can build your own, there is a good website that can teach you what bats look for in a roost and how to build your own here:

http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Outd...ildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bat-House.aspx

it also pitches you a good story about why you should build them. i'm going to build my own and wait until we move to the country and put them out!

for those of us who want to grow organic food for our TORTOISES.... don't forget about what i said.... BATS EAT BUGS! i'm going to put a whole bunch all around my pumpkin patch.

if any of this post intrigued you and you want to learn more about these precious little mammals, this website is a good place to start:

http://www.batcon.org/

happy reading! protect the bats!!

 

[Torty Mom]

Very interesting, learn something new everyday!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Becki]

I totally agree with you and encourage everyone to get at least one bat house. Mark Marrone has a pet bat that he's had for 30 years. He believes it is the oldest bat in the US. Intriguing, no?

 

[Bowser-the-Redfoot]

You can buy one here in Japan for $100 bucks ... They are pretty cool!

 

[moswen]

You can buy one here in Japan for $100 bucks ... They are pretty cool!

you can buy a bat or a bat house for $100 in japan? i wish i could have a pet bat... i think i'm going to satiate my hunger for owning one by volunteering in bat rehabilitation and building a few bat houses. i really want to hold one and carry it around and bottle feed a baby bat! how CUTE would that be!!!???

 

[Bowser-the-Redfoot]

You can buy a Bat for 100 bucks lol.. I think they are fruit bats from south america but I'm not sure

 

[terryo]

That was some great information Rebekah, and very interesting. I love bats too. Sometimes we sit outside at night in the Summer, just to watch a cluster of bats at the end of our street. We still haven't found out where they go for the daylight hours. You can actually see them zapping all those mosquitoes.

 

[Angi]

Can a bat be a pet? Also how do you set up a bat house? Owl houses are popular here, but I haven't heard of a bat house. We have bats, but I don't know what kind.
That was great info, but sad I did not know the bat population was declining.

 

[Tom]

I love 'em too. One of the companies I work for had some for a few years. In the summer, me and my little girl sit and watch the bats together. She'll be quick to tell you that a single bat can eat 1000 mosquitos in one night.

I had not heard about this fungus. So sad.

 

[Madkins007]

A bat house is similar to a bird house, but there is no bottom and there are vertical internal divisions they can hold onto. Making them the right size and placing them correctly is important.

I love bats as well, even though there is an annoying colony in our house and every so often I have to catch one flying around inside with my homemade net. I'm getting good at it- I can catch a flying bat in about a minute now. I transfer it to a perforated plastic container and release it far away. (Used to use the Humane Society, but they were rather slow in response and only came if you KNEW where the at was.)

I'm trying to think if I can add to your list of information...

- Some bats are also nectar eaters and pollinators. If you like bananas, mangos, or tequila, thank a bat!
- A fruit bat is Baquardi's logo, and they used to heavily support bat conservation
- Batman- need we say more?

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Interesting.

 

[moswen]

- Batman- need we say more?

haha!!! oh i'm right there with you, even though christian baale supposedly has a terrible personality, i love him in batman.


and as to the pollonator thing, i remember reading that too, and i also read some interesting information that stated bats are the #1 contributors to bringing back a deforested area, as birds are squeamish about flying in very open areas due to the fact that they may become prey to a larger bird, but bats are not, and they typically poo during flight (so if they are fruit bats their poo will contain little seeds) so they are who you can thank for new growth in de-forested areas!

i'm so obsessed with them right now i stayed up until 1am this morning reading every shred of information i could find on them. you can even adopt a bat, like you would adopt an animal at the zoo, and you can name it and pay for it's care and etc... i think that's going to go on my christmas wish list!!

 

[harris]

I have bat houses I put up throughout my backyard. I love laying on the deck on a Summer night watching them fly around from above. There was a lady I saw on Animal Planet a few years back that had a Flying Fox as a pet. That was waaaaayy cool.

 

[DeanS]

I also love bats...but here's a little reality! We've found 18 bats in the past six months that were rabies positive. They are the number one vector in CA (with the skunk close behind at number 2). I remember the LA Zoo displayed Vampires for about a year or so, but the blood (offered in Petri dishes) killed them off.

 

[dmmj]

Personally I don't really think they are cute, but I can't deny the impact they have on the insect population think of how many more bugs we would have without them? I like the idea of a bat house may try one sooner or later and see, I would love to be able to see them flying and eating bats. I would imagine bats are just as susceptible to rabies as any other animal, but that is no reason to hate on them. thanks for the info I did not know about fruit eating bats not having echo location though in hindsight it makes sense.

 

[Isa]

Thanks for sharing the info with us I love bats, I think they are very cute!

 

[GBtortoises]

Bats are awesome! I think they're ugly, but still awesome! I enjoy sitting out on my back deck on a summer night watching them fly around and devour insects. With a big swamp across the road that supplies plenty of food for them you would think the show may never end. Unfortunately that may not be the case. Hundreds of thousands of bats in my area of New York State along with northern New Jersey, Pennsylvannia and other areas of the Northeast have become infected with a fungal disease known as "White nose syndrome". They come in contact with it while they hibernate in their caves during the winter. By springtime a majority of a colony can be found dead from the disease. Hundreds of thousands over the past few years have died. Not good, not good at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nose_syndrome

 

[moswen]

yep that's what i heard about over the weekend. they don't actually die from the fungus though, the fungus wakes them up from hibernation and irritates them, then they can't get back into hibernation bc the fungus is so irritating, so then they fly out of their cave searching for food and either starve to death or freeze to death in the temperatures.

 

[ChiKat]

Bats are pretty awesome!

I'll have to dig up a picture I took of bats in Costa Rica, camouflaged on a tree. Pretty cool.

 

[Madortoise]

Love the bats, myself.
When I went to Louvre Museum, there were some old lithos of bat sketches that they mistakenly listed as some other animals. I pointed out to the person who worked there and the Frenchman promptly agreed and thanked me politely for the correction. Not sure if they labeled it correctly afterwards...bats are under-appreciated world-wide for sure.