Month February 2014

Winter Bats

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hello Everyone.  There have been a lot of very small bats coming into rehabilitation.  The people here at Save Lucy have been taking very good care of them, but some of them have been badly injured.  Our most recent little guy came in on Valentine’s Day.  Since he was such a handsome fellow and he arrived on Valentine’s Day, he was named Rudy Valentino. Little Rudy is a male silver hair bat.  They usually weigh 9 grams and females usually weigh 12-14 grams.  Little Rudy only weighed 7 grams.  He has been eating well, but had an injured wing.  Hopefully he will heal and will be well enough to be released later.  If not, he is such a wonderful little guy that he’ll make a very good education bat for the Save Lucy Campaign.   Another bat that came in was a very small hoary bat.  He only weighed 16 grams.  He should have been 28-35 grams.  He also has a very small forearm.  It’s only about ¾ of the length of a normal hoary bat in the winter.   Over the summer, a little red bat came in.  They named her Dawn.  She was only as big as a 1 month old, but by that time, she should have been 6-8 weeks old and able to fly. The people at Save Lucy think that some bats might have taken advantage of the long, mild summer and had their pups late in the season.  Bat pups that are born late in the […]

More Olympians

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hello everyone! Since the Olympics are on, I thought it would be nice if the bats would have one too. So, I have found five very cool and very interesting bat contestants for our Bat Olympics. (Click the captions to see original pages–Ed.) First up is the Giant Golden Crowned Flying Fox from the Philippines. He is trying to get a gold in the biggest bat competition. (So big!)   Next, going for smallest bat is the Kitti’s Hog-Nosed bat (or bumblebee bat) from western Thailand and south east Burma. (So cute! I want one!)   Our next olympian is a newly discovered bat found only on the Carribbean island of St. Vincent. He is competing for biggest triceratops horn on a bat. He is a Micronycteris megalotis. (I wonder if it’s sharp.)   Next, trying to get the gold in the biggest ears competition is the Brown Long Eared Bat from Great Britain. (The better to hear you with my dear mosquito)     Next, is the Chalinolobus tuberculata from New Zealand trying to get gold in the biggest tail competition. It looks like he or she has a good chance to me. (Can I have a tail like that? I mean really that’s just cool.) Ok. The judge (that’s me) has decided which bats will get gold. Because none of these bats have competitors, they all won!

With Love, from Russia

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope that you all are enjoying the Olympics.  Since they are in Russia, I thought you all might like to see some pictures of some Russian bats.  I hope you like them. (click the captions to see the original pages. –Ed.)   Lesser Mouse Eared Bat

A Busy Week!

Hello Everyone.  The people at Save Lucy have been busy this week.  They got an adorable, but very sick silver hair bat.  He was dehydrated and very sad.  I’m happy to report that he is feeling much better now.  They also got 4 big brown bats that had injuries that looked like they had been attacked by cats.  Two of them were too hurt and didn’t make it, but they were able to save the other two. Later in the week, they got a very sick big brown bat.  It had been put in a paint can with wet paint.  He’s had a rough time.  He needed charcoal to get the paint out of his system. Then he needed a flax oil treatment to get the paint off his face and wings. He’s doing much better now and is causing some problems for his rehabilitator. He managed to crawl up into the top of his incubator, which needed to be disassembled to get him out.  Since he’s so ambitious, they think he’s going to be ok. Please remember that if you see a bat that looks hurt or sick, don’t try to save it yourself.  Please call your local rescue group.  They know what they are doing and can help the animals. While you are waiting for the rescue people, please use something like a cardboard box to contain the bat.  Wet paint cans can cause more harm than good. And, last but not least, I know it’s hard not to cuddle them yourselves, but believe it or not, bats don’t want to be cuddled. (You can find local bat rescue by clicking this link, which our friends at Bat World Sanctuary maintain.)

Bats in the News

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hello Everyone, Bats are in the news again this week.  Some of it is good news and some of it is bad. The good news is that bat populations are recovering in Europe. The National Geographic is reporting that bat populations in Europe have increased by 43%. You can read the article here . With any luck, we’ll be able to report some good news for North American bats one day. In the meantime, our bad news… White-Nose Syndrome has been found in bats in Marion County in Arkansas. Arkansas is the 23rd state to have bats with WNS. It is being found in their northern long-eared bats. You can read the very sad article here.