Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle 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. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I read an article that I thought was important about trying not to spread WNS from cave to cave. As you know, WNS has been found in the Pacific Northwest. They are desperately trying to stop it from spreading. Since a lot of people go out and explore the outdoors on Memorial Day weekend, authorities would like to remind everyone about the dangers of white-nose syndrome and what we can do to help fight its spread. Since WNS can be carried from one cave to another by pets, other animals and humans, everyone is being asked to follow some very specific rules. The people who manage the Deschutes National Forest are specifically trying to protect Lava River Cave. They are saying that nothing that has been used in any other mine or cave is allowed to enter Lava River Cave. This includes clothing, shoes and gear. People are also being instructed to clean and disinfect items before going into any other cave or mine after Lava River Cave. I know it sounds like a lot, but it’s really important for the bats that everyone follows their rules. Bats are very important to our environment and they need our help. So, if you are planning on visiting Lava River Cave in Oregon, or any other cave, please follow the rules mentioned in the article. The little bats are counting on you. You can read the article here.
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle 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. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a tiring week because it is standardized testing time again. There is still one more week of tests, but then they’ll be done. I am a little jealous of all my batty friends because bats don’t have to take standardized tests. On the bright side, the tests do mean that the school year is almost done! So, I read a very sad article about bats in Georgia. Apparently, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources surveys the bats in caves and mines in the state every year. Since WNS was first found in Georgia three years ago, about 90 percent of the bats there have died of the disease. They surveyed a total of 20 bat hibernation habitats and found that 16 of them either tested positive for the fungus that causes WNS or showed signs of being infected. Most of the bats of the genus Myotis are gone in Georgia. The only bats they found in this genus were gray bats. That means that their little brown bats are all gone. I’m really sad about that. The article did have a little bit of good news. It said that the gray bats are surviving. Gray bats are listed as a federally endangered species, so this is important news. It looks like gray bats carry the fungus that causes WNS, but they aren’t developing the disease. If you want to read more you can find the article here. In different […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle 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. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I am very excited because this weekend I am going camping! Hopefully I will see a lot of critters (just no horrible spiders, please!). I am going to be close to the beach, so with any luck, I’ll see some dolphins playing in the ocean. But, what I really think I’ll see are some little bats! I am going to Delaware, so I thought it would be fun to talk about one of their bats… it turns out they have the same bats as in Virginia. Since they don’t really have bats that we don’t have here, I thought I’d research one that I don’t know anything about. I found a cool bat called the Evening bat. According to the maps, we have Evening bats here, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. They have dark brown fur and black ears. They live in the forest and are almost never found in caves. Hopefully that little fact will help protect them from white-nose syndrome. Evening bats form colonies in hollow trees, behind loose bark, and sometimes in buildings and attics. They wake up after dusk and eat small nocturnal insects like flying ants, Japanese beetles and moths. One thing that I thought was very interesting is that these bats migrate hundreds of miles south. And, only the females migrate back up north! The males stay in the southern part of the range. So all of you who have seen an […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle 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. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to a good friend of ours who passed away last weekend. He was a really funny man and we always had a lot of fun together. He was like an uncle to me and I really can’t believe he’s gone. So, this blog is for you “Uncle” Chris. We miss you! I read an article about a really cool animal called the Hispaniolan solenodon. Scientists have mapped the solenodon’s DNA and have decided that it was around during the time of the dinosaurs! Since the Hispaniolan solenodon is a really cool animal, I thought I should look up other cool animals that live on the island of Hispaniola. I found one called the Hispaniolian greater funnel-eared bat. The Hispaniolan greater funnel-eared bat has soft fur that is kind of long and is woolly at the base. The top of its fur is light brownish and the base of its fur is pinkish. It also has a bell-shaped structure on its forehead. This bat is only found on the island of Hispaniola and lives in caves. It likes to eat yummy insects. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has categorized the species as “Near Threatened.” This is because the caves where they live are a fragile habitat. The IUCN has recommended that action be taken to protect the caves. Tourists damaging the cave ecosystems and mining are two big […]