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!]