With Halloween coming, the Chicks thought it would be interesting to begin dispelling myths about some of the spookier nighttime creatures. We will begin with bats. Vampire bats do not suck blood. Rather, they lick the blood of cows an other small mammals. Vampire bats are actually very small and are no threat to us!
So, here goes. No more fearing them in the dark. They do not get tangled in your hair and will not suck the lifeblood out of you….here are some truths about
BATS
- A single bat can snap up over 600 mosquitoes in one hour, as well as other little pests!
Bats are shy, gentle, and intelligent. They are among the slowest reproducing animals on earth.
- Most bat species have only one live young per year. A mother bat nurses her baby from a pair of pectoral breasts.
- The average life-span of a bat is 25 to 40 years.
- Bat populations in rapid decline, and White Nose Syndrome is threatening them even further. Half the bats in the US are listed as rare, threatened or endangered.
- While both bats and mice are mammals, bats are not rodents and are more closely related to primates and people.
- Bats live a very long time. Most bats live between 10 and 20 years. Some bats typically live to 30 years old. The oldest known bat was recently recaptured in Europe at 41 years old.
- Very few bats contract rabies. Over the last 50 years, less than 40 people have gotten rabies from a wild bat. Scientific studies have shown that less than 1% of wild bats test positive for rabies.
http://batconservation.org/drupal/bat-myths Check out the Organization for Bat Conservation!
Yes, We do need our bats and they are fun creatures. I like to watch them dive for insects over my pond at dusk.
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I am building two bat houses to help control mosquitos
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Yea! That will do the trick. I don’t have mosquitos down by my pond because the bats gobble them up!
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A perfect post for this time of year. I’ll be sharing the post and checking out the Bat Conservation Organization.
Cheers~
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Thank you – you can even adopt a bat!!!
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They are also important in the process of pollination in certain plants! There are a lot of myths about bats and it’s good to have this kind of post to educate people! There will be an excellent activity to watch bats in their habitat during the October 20th weekend in Puerto Rico. The activity is promoted by Puerto Rico National Parks and will be held inside “Parque de las Cavernas de Camuy” (Camuy Cave Park), a beautiful cave which was formed by the Camuy River. The Camuy river has the third largest subterranean flow in the world! The park will be open until 11 pm to watch the bats and learn about this creatures.
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Sounds like an amazing site….I will be posting fun Fallish things over the next few weeks!! Enjoy…
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Thanks so much for posting this! We have a nearby cave (Dunbar Cave State Park) and they have closed the cave due to White Nose. 😦 It is so awful how much this is decimating the bat populations! I wish more people would become informed about how awesome bats really are. Where I work, we are trying to spread the word on campus to get people more involved in helping to study and save them. Thanks for speaking out for them!
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build bat houses and they will come….also – check that website!! Adopt a bat
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Enlightening…nice post
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Very enlightening…great post.
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I LOVE bats!!!! How cool is it to be designated as the only flying mammal on this lovely planet?! 😀 Love the post. But…I do have to say…I’ve witnessed one fly into a friends hair (get this:) HALLOWEEN Eve a few years ago. That left a wonderful memory in my mind. Super funny!!
I’ve had a change to work with some fellow researchers on some population studies of Eastern Pip’s, Little Brown, Grey, Red and Big Brown bats. So much fun!!!
Spread the word: SAVE THE BATS! Populations are drasitically declining due to White Nose Syndrome. 😦 I sure as heck don’t want to be apart of the species (humans) responsible for contributing to their extinction.
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