Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! While I was enjoying my summer here in Virginia, people in other places around the world weren’t enjoying themselves quite so much. It has be a particularly difficult week for the Italians. There was a terrible earthquake in Italy this week. They are still having aftershocks, which in my opinion are strong enough to be considered full-fledged earthquakes themselves. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to the people of Italy. Our thoughts are with you. Here is an adorable picture of an Italian bat, the Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat. Now, for happier news. It is International Bat Weekend! All the bats at Save Lucy are very excited. They just know that they will get extra mealworms for the special occasion! Arlington, VA is celebrating Bat Weekend with Bat Fest Arlington. Mrs. Sturges, Save Lucy’s president, will be there, but unfortunately, I can’t go. I will be at Bat Fest Annandale in a couple of weeks though. I am looking forward to seeing all the bats and bat lovers there! In other news, there was a very important article shared this week on Save Lucy’s Facebook page. I feel it is my civic duty to mention it here, just in case some of you didn’t see it. I can’t believe I have to mention it, but…don’t lick bats! Apparently, some people do this for fun. It is not a good idea. I believe this rule should be extended to […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Since this was the last week of the Olympics, I thought it would be nice to do another Olympic bat post. These Olympic Games were special because we had a team made up of refugee athletes. These athletes come from countries where it is no longer safe for them to live because of wars. Today, we are going to learn about bats from their homelands. Two of the athletes are from Syria. One of the bats of Syria is the Hemprich’s long-eared bat. I think this bat’s long ears are especially cute. The bat has thick, soft fur that is sandy-yellow to dark brown with a white belly. Its nostrils are crescent shaped. This handsome little bat is carnivorous and likes to eat beetles, termites, cockroaches, grasshoppers, crickets and locusts. If you would like to learn more about the Hemprich’s long-eared bat, you can read about it here. Five of the athletes are from the country of South Sudan. This is the youngest country in the world and I think it’s really sad that it’s already having a civil war. When the country was only 2 months old, I met a few people from South Sudan. They were a delegation that came to see our Special Olympics and it was a lot of fun to talk with them about their new country. Now I wonder how they are doing. Not only is South Sudan the world’s youngest country, it […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you had a great week. I have been enjoying watching the Olympics. The US is doing very well and we are all very proud of our athletes. The athletes from Maryland (not too far from my home in Virginia) are doing especially well. As promised, we’ll celebrate the Olympics by learning about bats from countries around the world. I thought it would be nice to research bats from two countries that won their very first Olympic medals ever in Rio: Fiji and Kosovo. Fiji only has one bat that is endemic to the country. It is called the Fijian Monkey-faced bat. Not only is this the only bat in Fiji, it is the only mammal endemic to the country, too! The Fijian monkey-faced bat is a large megabat and has orange eyes. It has thick fur and weighs up to 350 grams. Not many of these bats have been found. They only live within a 100 square kilometer region of the rainforest on the mountain of Taveuni. Because of this, it is listed as critically endangered. Scientists believe there are fewer than 1,000 Fijian Monkey-faced bats. If you want to read more about this bat, you can find some information here and here. There are a few bats that are native to Kosovo. One of them is the Natterer’s bat. The Natterer’s bat lives throughout Europe and is not considered to be endangered. It is a medium sized bat with gray-brown fur on its back and […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am very excited that the Olympic Games have begun in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Our little friend, Freda, is very happy about it too. Since she is a Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat, she is looking forward to learning more about Brazil. I thought it would be nice to research Brazilian bats and I found a very interesting one. The Greater Bulldog Bat is an amazing bat that lives in Brazil as well as the rest of South and Central America. These bats are absolutely adorable! Greater Bulldog Bats are one of the few bats that eat fish. They use echolocation to detect ripples in the water. They stick their feet in the water and catch the fish with their talons. They are able to catch over 30 fish in a single fishing trip! Because they eat fish, these bats live near rivers and streams in the rainforests. If you’d like to read more about these bats, you can read it here. Here’s some great film of a greater bulldog bat fishing. Please forgive NatGeo Wild for the alarming title! Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll learn more about interesting bats from around the world. I hope everyone enjoys watching the Olympic Games. My hope is that these games will encourage all the people of the world to learn a little more about other countries and cultures. Let’s hope these games are able to encourage peace and understanding around […]