Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Mine was awesome because, once again, I did not have a full week of school. That’s right! Friday was a “Teacher Work Day”, so I got to stay home. Monday is another one, so next week will be a 4 day week as well. Sometimes my life is amazing! I found an article about a bat sanctuary in Mexico. Since it was in a Mexican magazine, it was written in Spanish. I do not speak Spanish. Like, really…barely a word. So, before I begin, I would like to thank Google Translate. And now for the wonderful news that I discovered in this article! I am very happy to announce that The National Commission of Protected Natural Areas, a corporation in Mexico, is trying to create the first bat sanctuary in Mexico! The sanctuary is a wonderful idea in my opinion, and will be mainly for millions of Mexican Free-tailed bats. I don’t know if you all remember, but a few years ago, the Save Lucy Campaign had a surprise bat guest, Freda. Freda was one of the sweetest and sassiest Free-Tailed bats I have ever met. Of course, I’ve only met two, but I digress. I hope that this sanctuary will be able to help many bats like Freda. Scientists are still searching for the best place for the sanctuary. They have managed to find seven ideal bat caves throughout the country. One of these caves, the Cueva de la Boca is already a beautiful summer home for a maternity colony of approximately five million Mexican Free-tailed bats. The Cueva de la Boca, used to be home to one of the largest Mexican Free-Tailed colonies in all of Mexico! After vandals found the cave, the population decreased. Hopefully, with a […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a great one because it started with a holiday. I hope everyone had a happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day. I am very excited because something very special happened recently in the bat world! Scientists have discovered two new dog-faced bat species!!! That’s right! For over 50 years, scientists thought that there were only six species of dog-faced bats. After studying bats found in Panama and Ecuador, they discovered that there were actually eight different species. The two new species are called the Freeman’s dog-faced bat and the Waorani dog-faced bat. And they are adorable! Dog-faced bats are extremely tricky to capture, seeing as they fly faster than a lot of other bats. Using mist nets, researchers were able to catch 56 Freeman’s dog-faced bats. They didn’t know until later that they had a new species! It’s also tricky to get echolocation recordings of these bats, but the scientists managed to get some. Sadly, they were not able to get recordings of the Waorani dog-faced bat. It was also a bit harder to get catch one of these bats. Their discovery of this bat was based off of physical examinations and comparing the DNA of these bats to the DNA of some of the bats they already had. If you want to read more about these amazing bats, you can read about them here .
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I had a great one. The reason it was so awesome was because I had a “snow day” on Monday. That’s right, they cancelled school for the day because there was a possibility of freezing rain! I got to sleep in and watch TV. ? And do you know what makes that snow day even better? Thanks to that day, I will not need to go to school for an entire 5 day week at all in January!!! That’s right. There are “teacher work days” scheduled for the end of the month. Personally, I believe I could get used to this sort of thing. And now for the bat news…It is not good news. If fact, it is very sad news. As you all know, Australia is experiencing summer while we are experiencing winter. On the 7th, a very bad heatwave hit south eastern Australia. This is causing a lot of the flying-foxes to die of extreme heat exposure. The temperatures in Australia have hit record highs of 42-43 degrees C. For those of us in the US, that translates to 107-109 degrees F. In Sydney, the temperature got as high as 45 degrees C (113 degrees F). The poor bats can’t handle that kind of heat combined with the high humidity. As soon as they noticed the bats dying, volunteers began monitoring the bat colonies in Campbelltown, Parramatta Park, Yarramuni, South Creek, and Emu Plains. Bats were dying by the hundreds and volunteers raced to help those who could be saved. Volunteers rushed more than 40 young flying-foxes into critical care. Sadly, they were unable to save them all. Another day, volunteers braved the heat to save hundreds of little pups who have been rehydrated and reunited with their […]