WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL

BATS

AGENDA

• Anatomy

• Bat Facts

• Video 1

• Mexican Free-tailed Bat

--- BREAK ---

• White-nose Syndrome

• Video 2

• Bat Houses

• Rabies

Chiroptera - hand wing

BAT FACTS

• 1200 known species in the world

• Mammals - only mammal with true flight

• Various species are adapted to specific food types

• Some are able to live up to 40 years

• Upside down sleepers

• By size slowest reproducing mammals on earth

• Very clean animals

• Have excellent eye sight

• Most are nocturnal & find food by echolocation

Echolocation

Smallest Bat

Bumblebee Bat

Largest Bat

Flying Fox Bat

What do Bats Eat?

Nectar

What do Bats Eat?

Fish and Frogs

What do Bats Eat?

Insects

Bat is fast, high flying and

slow to manuver

Bat is low, slow flying and

very manuverable

What Other Things do Bats

Eat? • Fruit

• Lizards

• Scorpions

• Centipedes

• Pollen

• Rodents

• Birds

• Blood

Vampire Bat

VIDEO

• Notice the Cave Gate

• Watch for agave pollinating bat

• Mother flying with her pup

• Bat/Flower adaptation

Mexican Free-tailed Bat

Mexican Free-tailed

ECR Bracken Visit

Bat Nursery Colony

Pups pack in at 500 per square foot

Radar Images

Mexican Free-tailed

Live….

• Caves

• Bridges

• Abandoned Tunnels and Mines

• Buildings

• Dead Trees

• Bat Houses

BREAK

White Nose Syndrome

White Nose Syndrome

• First discovered 2006

• Cold Temperature fungus

• Attacks exposed skin during hibernation

• Fungus is irritating causing bat to come out of torpor

• Stored up fat supply is depleted

• Bat dies

• Death toll has exceeded 5.7 million bats in NE U.S.

White Nose Syndrome

• We don’t know how to control it

• It is spreading rapidly

WNS Spread

VIDEO

• Look for:

- Austin bridge

- Bracken Cave again

• Video was made at least 4 to 5 years ago

Clues – look for:

- # of species

- Major losses uncommon

Bat Houses

• At least 2 feet tall & 14 inches wide

• Landing platform of 6 inches

• At least 2 roosting partitions ¾” apart

• Housing area groved/roughened

• Vent 6 inches from bottom

• House should be a light color

Bat House Installation

• Mount house on a pole

• Landing platform 15 feet from ground

• Install within ¼ mile of water

• Install no closer than 25 feet from trees

• Install away from bright lights

• Remember guano happens

Flat Bat House

Rocket House

RABIES • Bats can contract rabies

• About ½ of 1% of bats have rabies

• Rabid bats do not become aggressive

• How do you know…

- Bat on ground having trouble flying

- Out during daylight hours

• What do you do…

- DO NOT TOUCH without heavy gloves

- Place bat in shoebox

- Call me