Month August 2018

Hang on Ope’ape’a

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a fun week, but sadly, it is now over. School starts on Tuesday, and I am not ready to start getting up early again. It’ll be nice to see my friends, but I do wish school could start a nice 2 or 3 hours later. Wouldn’t that be nice? There is currently a hurricane heading toward the islands of Hawaii. I thought I would write about a bat that lives there. As it turns out, Hawaii’s native bat, the Hawaiian Hoary Bat, is the only native land mammal to Hawaii. Sadly, the Hawaiian Hoary Bat has been on the endangered species list since 1970. Like many of the bats on the endangered list, this bat’s problems are due to deforestation and pesticide use. This bat likes to eat insects and lives in the forests of the islands of Kauai, Maui, the Big Island of Hawaii, Oahu, Molokai, and Koolawe. The bat has only recently been confirmed on Koolawe. The Hawaiian Hoary Bat is brown/grey colored and has white tips on their extremities. The bats are about 6 inches long and weigh about an ounce. If you would like to read more about the Hawaiian Hoary Bat, you can find information here.

When bloggers travel…

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I went to Montreal for vacation! It was amazing. Montreal is a great city to visit and I highly recommend it. While I didn’t get to see lots of bats flying around at night, I know that Montreal has some cute ones. I decided to write this week’s blog on a little bat from Canada. The Eastern Small-footed bat is adorable! It is the smallest bat in North America and is only about 20 cm long with its wings stretched out. It has, as its name suggests, small feet. Their feet are less than half an inch long! Isn’t that adorable? They have brown fur with golden highlights, and a black furry face and ears. Their range is all the way from Virginia and West Virginia, into Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada. Even though they have a very big range, the Eastern Small-footed bat is the rarest bat in North America. One reason this species is threatened is because of problems with their roosts. They roost in caves, mines, and even under large rocks and other tight crevices. Many of their roosts are being disturbed while the bats are hibernating. Another serious problem these bats are facing is White Nose Syndrome. It is estimated that White Nose Syndrome has killed 12% of the species. When combined with other threats to the species, WNS is having a devastating affect on the Eastern Small-footed Bat. If you would like to read more about this bat, you can find information here.

Explore your world:Indonesia

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I went back-to-school shopping. It was fun to buy new clothes for school. The people in Indonesia haven’t been having such a great week. There was a really bad earthquake there. I decided to learn about a bat from Indonesia. I found an adorable bat called the Fawn Leaf-nosed bat. They got their name from their leaf shaped nose. Their nose narrows at the front to make their leaflets more visible than those of other leaf-nosed and horseshoe bats. Another distinguishing feature this bat has is their big ears. Fawn Leaf-nosed bats have adorable triangular ears. They have grayish-brown or orangey colored fur. Like most other bats, these guys eat yummy crunchy insects. They especially like moths and beetles. Fawn Leaf-nosed bats roosts in caves and abandoned mines. They also take shelter in sheds and other buildings. They live in areas close to water, such as rainforests and open Savannah woodlands. These bats range from Southeast Asia and Melanesia to the Coen region and Cape York. If you want to read more about these bats you can do so here.

Something promising for little Lucys?

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I had another restful one. I just love being able to sleep and relax during the summer.  I read an article about bats in Wyoming. It was a sad article because it was about White Nose Syndrome, but the information in it was very important and I thought it should be shared. Many bat species that used to thrive are now listed as federally threatened. Our very own little Lucy, the Little Brown bat, which used to be the most common bat species in the United States, is facing a 90-95% mortality because of White Nose Syndrome. The Northern long-eared bat is threatened, and the Tricolored bat is about to be listed as endangered. And, if that wasn’t sad enough, the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome was found on a bat in Wyoming earlier this year. Once a bat is found to be carrying the fungus, it takes two to three years for White Nose Syndrome to appear and wipe out entire colonies. And, since colonies in the west are much smaller than the ones in the east, the bats in an infected colony have an even smaller chance of survival. When a bat becomes infected with the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome, they become agitated. The fungus makes them itch, which wakes them from their hibernation slumber. This eats up the fat reserves that the bats had stored up when it was warmer out and there were lots of bugs flying around. Usually when a bat is hibernating, it only wakes up a few times. It flies to a new place in the cave, or it licks dew drops that have collected on its fur and goes back to sleep. If the bat has White Nose Syndrome, […]