Month February 2015

It’s hard out there for a bat!

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.]

The weather outside is frightful!

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. The bats around here are freezing! Luckily, the little bats being taken care of by the nice people at Save Lucy are nice and toasty, but the poor little bats outside are having to suffer through some really cold weather. First, there was snow and then it was just ridiculously cold. They even canceled school because it was so cold! I hope the little bats that are roosting outside managed to stay toasty. I’m worried about them. On a different note, I know you are all anxiously waiting for news about Fierce and Gladys. Gladys absolutely loved Fierce’s thoughtful poetry and letter last week. Once they exchanged their Valentine’s gifts (Gladys got Fierce a worm), they had a lovely Valentine’s dinner. They ate mealworms, mealworms and more mealworms. For dessert, they had chocolate covered wax worms. I hope you all are able to stay warm. If you are looking for something to do while you are stuck inside, perhaps you could knit cute little hats, scarves, mittens or even earmuffs for your neighborhood bats. I’m sure they’d love them! [The prolonged abnormally cold weather is having a profound impact on our resident bats. Save Lucy is getting a several calls a day regarding bats inside houses or down on the ground in the cold. These are overwhelmingly young bats that do not have enough nutritional resources to survive this lengthy cold snap. If you find a bat indoors, please contain it […]

Could this be love?

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. Hello everyone! Have a happy Valentine’s Day today! As most of you know Fierce and Gladys are a lovely couple. This year Fierce has done something very special. He has written a poem! Here it is. Mealworms are brown, Some moths are too, Now I am hungry, Oh, and I love you! – From Fierce to Gladys! He also wrote a note… Dear Gladys, I love you even more than a waxworm and they are yummy. All this talk of food is making me hungry. I hope the humans feed us soon. From, Fierce Isn’t that just the most romantic thing you’ve ever read??? Something tells me Fierce has a lot to learn. I hope Gladys doesn’t mind.

Bat Technology

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 good week. I found some news that I think is really cool. Apparently, bats are even more useful than I thought. Some students at Wake Forest University in North Carolina are using bats as a model for a device they are making. They think the device will be able to help blind people. The device sort of looks like a watch and uses echo location to determine where things are and how close stuff is. If a person gets close to an obstacle, the wristband vibrates. The closer the person gets, the faster the watch vibrates. It only costs $35 per watch. I really hope it works. I have a visually impaired friend who I think would love this. You can read the article here.