Month December 2016

2016, Not So Bad After All!

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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. As you all know, we said good-bye to some very memorable people this week. On Tuesday, Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) passed away. Her mother, Debbie Reynolds, passed away the next day. They say she died of a broken heart. It’s very sad. We also said good-bye to a singer, George Michael. He was a famous singer in the 1980s. Since a lot of people are talking about how difficult a year 2016 was, I thought it would be nice to remember the good things that happened. So, while I agree, there were definitely some things that I wish hadn’t happened, there was some good as well… We started the year off with a huge blizzard! I know some of you might not think that is such a glorious thing, but that is because you aren’t in school. If you were in school, you would agree that a blizzard is a fantastically glorious thing to experience. While we were in the midst of the blizzard, we met a beautiful Hoary bat named Blizzard. She stayed with Save Lucy for a while and then, when she was feeling better, she rejoined her friends in the wild. Next, we met Reggie and his friends. These little bats became great stars with their movies, “Very Scary”, “Settle Down”, and “Om Nom Nom”. While we are still waiting to hear what the Oscar committee has to say, these little friends are very […]

Flappy Holidays!!

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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am very excited about tomorrow. Tomorrow is an extra special day because both Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day. This is only the 4th time since the year 1900 that this has happened! In honor of this very special occasion, I found an article about a bat research project in Israel. The article is about a study done on how bats communicate with each other. A group of researchers from Tel Aviv University studied Egyptian fruit bats for 75 days. They studied the bats’ squeaks and how the noises affected the bats’ movements. They discovered that when bats make certain noises, the other bats responded in a certain way. They also noticed that bats change their tone when they are talking to members of the opposite gender. The scientists still have a lot of work to do. They would like to find out if the vocalizations are something bats are born with or if they learn them as they grow. I think they should have a look at little Freda. She has been with Save Lucy since she was a very young little pup and she vocalizes quite nicely…and often. If you would like to read more, you can find the article here. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! May this holiday week bring everyone peace, joy and happiness. I hope people are able to […]

Good St. Nick, please leave a bat for us one and all

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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am excited that it is finally winter break. Friday was the last day of school until after New Year! I can’t wait for Christmas to come!!! The bats here at Save Lucy are all very excited too. They are looking forward to a yummy holiday meal of mealworms. Maybe they’ll get lucky and get some juicy waxworms too! Since it is almost Christmas, I have been thinking about Santa Claus. And since Santa also goes by the name St. Nicholas, I thought I’d research someone by that name. There was a man named Saint Nicholas who was from a part of Greece that is now part of the southern coast of Turkey. So, in honor of Saint Nicholas, let’s all learn about bats from Greece. Shall we? I found an awesome website that talks about all the bats found on the island of Crete (part of Greece). My favorite is the Mountain Long-eared Bat (Plecotus macrobullaris). It is a rare species of bat that lives all the way from the Alps, to the Balkans and Turkey. It is found in western Greece and in Crete. It was recognized as a separate species in 2003 and hasn’t been studied very much yet. It likes to live in caves found in the mountains. It can live in altitudes all the way up to 2800 meters (almost 9200 feet). The website lists a lot of other kinds of bats […]

Good News for Bloggers and 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It was really cold here in Virginia, but not as bad as some other places. Some people got snow! I hope everyone stayed nice and warm and enjoyed the winter weather. I’m hoping that we’ll get some snow here soon. I love snow days! I have some fabulously wonderful news! I’m going to be included in a book! A very nice children’s book author named Rob Laidlaw is writing a book about bats and bat issues and he wants to include me! I am so excited! Mr. Laidlaw writes children’s non-fiction books that raise awareness about animal issues. He also started a wildlife protection charity in Canada called Zoocheck. This will be his first book about bats, but he has written books about all kinds of other animals. You can find out about his books at http://roblaidlawbooks.com/. I’ve read some of his books and they are all great! I hope you all have a chance to read them too. It takes a long time to write a book, so it won’t be published until next year. It will hopefully be out in Canada next fall. It will take a little longer for it to come out in the US. I can’t wait to read it! Thank you, Mr. Laidlaw! I am honored! And now, I have some wonderful news in the world of bats! Some of you probably already saw this, but it is so important that […]

A little December cheer for bats in Arkansas!

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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I can’t believe it’s already December. Soon it will be Christmas and Hanukkah and New Year! The bats here at Save Lucy and I are excited about the holidays.  And now, the bat news… The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas has just purchased 1,425 acres of forest. It is about two miles west of Mt. Judea in Newton County, AR. The forest has a deep valley, steep land, several streams and caves. The Nature Conservancy and the Buffalo River Foundation are working together to raise money to preserve the forest environment. The really awesome thing about the new nature preserve is that it is home to three protected species of bats. Gray bats, Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats are found there. The Gray and Indiana bats are both endangered and the northern long-eared bats are threatened. So, protecting this land could really help the bats. The land will open to hikers on January 1st, but there won’t be any trails for them to follow. The Nature Conservancy wants to wait a while before it marks hiking trails. If you want to read more, you can find it here.