Month April 2018

A bat fit for a king!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I did because yesterday was King’s Day in the Netherlands. Since I am part Dutch, I celebrated the day with some Dutch pancakes and a yummy Dutch cake. King’s Day is the birthday of the Dutch King. So, I would like to wish His Majesty, King Willem-Alexander a very happy birthday. I hope everyone in the Netherlands and Dutch people all over the world had a fantastic holiday. Since it was the King’s birthday yesterday, I thought that I would write about a bat from the Netherlands. I found an adorable bat called the Pond Bat. They are so cute! They have ash-grey or chestnut-brown fur on their backs, and their stomachs are covered with greyish fur. They live all over Europe and part of Asia. Pond bats roost in hollows in trees, caves, and comfy human house roofs and church towers. As their name suggests, they like living near water. They dive toward the water and catch gnats, midges, and caddis flies…I think the Bat Scouts could have a new Bat Scout cookie, because…eww! Like many other bats, these adorable critters are in danger. Many of their nursery sites have been lost in the western part of their range. They are doing a little better in the eastern part of their range, but they are still near threatened there. If you would like to read more about Pond Bats, you can find information here.  

A Very Good Week Indeed!!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! The world of bats had a pretty good one. I have some very exciting news. Mr. Rob Laidlaw has finished writing his book on bats. Bat Citizens:  Defending the Ninjas of the Night has already been released in Canada and will be on the shelves in the US next month! It is amazing and I’m sure you’ll all love it! The book is all about bats, the challenges they face, and how people are helping them. I am happy to report that page 29 of the book is particularly wonderful. That page is all about ME! There are a lot of interesting facts in the book, so I hope you will all read it when you get a chance. Thank you, Mr. Laidlaw for including my story in your book! And now for some more good news. I am happy to report that the Lesser Long-Nosed bat is finally off of the Endangered Species List! This beautiful bat has been on the list since 1988 and is the first bat to be removed from list due to recovery. These bats are important because they are important pollinators and seed dispersers of the Sonoran Desert saguaro cactus and of the agave plant. The fact that they pollinate the agave plant is important to the tequila producers of Mexico because tequila is made from this plant. When they were first placed on the list, there were fewer than 1,000 Lesser Long-Nosed Bats living in only 14 known colonies. Now there are approximately 200,000 of them living in 75 roosts! That is incredible news and it is all thanks to hard work by biologists and researchers in the United States and Mexico. The US Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with Mexico to work […]

Saskatchewan: Corner Gas and Little Brown Bats, Hooray!

Today’s blog is dedicated to the people of Saskatchewan, Canada. I was very sad to hear about the terrible accident last weekend. I know this is a very difficult time for the people of Saskatchewan and for many people throughout Canada. Please know that my thoughts are with you. I hope you all had a good week! I am happy to report that I get to enjoy a long weekend! Friday was the end of the 3rd quarter at school, so we had an early release and we get to stay home Monday! Isn’t that amazing? I plan on sleeping late and going shopping. This week, I researched bats of Saskatchewan. They have 8 species of bats there. Many of the bats they have there are the same species that we have here in Virginia. There is one special little bat that they have that is no longer found here in Fairfax, Virginia. That’s right! The people of Saskatchewan are lucky enough to still have little brown bats. They have little Lucys flying in the night sky! Sadly, all of our little brown bats have passed away due to White Nose Syndrome. I was happy to discover the little brown bats who call Saskatchewan home are doing well. For those of us who have never been lucky enough to see a little brown bat flying around, they are adorable. They have yellowy-brown to light brown fur and are smaller than big brown bats. If these bats are able to avoid WNS, they can live up to 33 years. That makes them one of the longest lived mammals for their size. If you want to learn more about little brown bats, you can find information on the Save Lucy Website:  http://virginiabats.org. And now, I am happy to announce that this Tuesday, […]

This April, a little March Sadness

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”5″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_slideshow” gallery_width=”600″ gallery_height=”400″ cycle_effect=”fade” cycle_interval=”5″ show_thumbnail_link=”0″ thumbnail_link_text=”Bats of WNS” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] The images above are white nose species we have hosted at Save Lucy. Not all species are imperiled equally, but all of them, even the more common ones, are in need of conservation action. — Ed. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Mine started off well because it was Easter. I like Easter! I got to eat a lot of candy and candy makes me happy. Sadly, my wonderful vacation and holiday had to come to an end. I went to school on Tuesday. I had to give a 10-minute speech in my English class on Wednesday. I also had exams. It was awful! Something else happened this week that was even more awful than my suffering. The fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome has been found in two new places. First, it was found in Kansas. Kansas is the 32nd state that the fungus has been found in. Several bats were found to have the disease in Cherokee County in Southeast Kansas and in Barber County in South central Kansas. This news made me very sad. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the fungus has now been found in Central Texas. It was found in the Panhandle of Texas last year and it seems to be spreading. It has now been found in 4 new Texas counties. They found the fungus on cave bats, tri-colored bats, Townsend’s big-eared bats, and on a Mexican free-tailed bat. The detection of the fungus on a Mexican free-tailed bat was particularly worrisome. Scientists don’t think these bats are susceptible to WNS, but since they migrate in such large numbers, they are worried the disease could spread further. If you would like to read […]