merelygifted:
megellen:
gothiccharmschool:
This is possibly the most adorable thing I’ve seen all day.
megellen:
I adore bats. I had a bat nursery on my farm in an unused section of the barn. They were sooooo cute and the mommy bats got very used to me being there and looking at them. The best part? No bugs. No bugs ever. No horseflies. No regular flies. Nothing. Pretty sure I had the only horse barn on the planet that had an almost zero need for fly spray.
Bats are so cute and so wonderful - see dear Megellen’s comment!
Duly reblogged for extra batty Halloweeny goodness.
"a skeleton walking his pets"
Hayes Roberts
Bat Before the Moon
* Artist: Biho Takashi, active ca. 1890-1930
* Medium: Woodblock color print
* Dates: ca. 1910
* Period: Meiji Period
* Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 9 9/16 in. (23.5 x 24.3 cm)
Ta much, dear MSiegel
* Artist: Biho Takashi, active ca. 1890-1930
* Medium: Woodblock color print
* Dates: ca. 1910
* Period: Meiji Period
* Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 9 9/16 in. (23.5 x 24.3 cm)
Ta much, dear MSiegel
Bats in Borneo have been found roosting in carnivorous pitcher plants.
A new study reveals that the plants benefit from nutrients in the bats' droppings.
This unusual living arrangement is apparently beneficial for the bats too as they can shelter unseen inside the plants' pitchers.
Although tree shrews have also been observed using pitcher plants as toilets, this is the first time mammals have been found living inside them.
Nepenthes carnivorous pitcher plants grow in nutrient-poor soil and rely on trapping insects to acquire enough nitrogen for growth.
Found in the peat swamps and heath forest of Borneo, N. rafflesiana elongata are remarkable for their long aerial pitchers.
However, research has previously suggested that N. r. elongata catch up to seven times less insects than other pitcher plants in Borneo.
In a new study, published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists found that the unique subspecies had a extraordinary relationship with mammals.
Dr Ulmar Grafe and his team investigated how the plants supplemented their nitrogen intake and were surprised to find woolly bats inside the pitchers.
"It was totally unexpected to find bats roosting in the pitchers consistently," says Dr Grafe.
The small Hardwicke's woolly bats (Kerivoula hardwickii) were found roosting above the digestive fluids in the plants' pitchers.
Rather than consuming the whole bat for extra nitrogen, Dr Grafe found that the plants gained from the bats' waste. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
A new study reveals that the plants benefit from nutrients in the bats' droppings.
This unusual living arrangement is apparently beneficial for the bats too as they can shelter unseen inside the plants' pitchers.
Although tree shrews have also been observed using pitcher plants as toilets, this is the first time mammals have been found living inside them.
Nepenthes carnivorous pitcher plants grow in nutrient-poor soil and rely on trapping insects to acquire enough nitrogen for growth.
Found in the peat swamps and heath forest of Borneo, N. rafflesiana elongata are remarkable for their long aerial pitchers.
However, research has previously suggested that N. r. elongata catch up to seven times less insects than other pitcher plants in Borneo.
In a new study, published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists found that the unique subspecies had a extraordinary relationship with mammals.
Dr Ulmar Grafe and his team investigated how the plants supplemented their nitrogen intake and were surprised to find woolly bats inside the pitchers.
"It was totally unexpected to find bats roosting in the pitchers consistently," says Dr Grafe.
The small Hardwicke's woolly bats (Kerivoula hardwickii) were found roosting above the digestive fluids in the plants' pitchers.
Rather than consuming the whole bat for extra nitrogen, Dr Grafe found that the plants gained from the bats' waste. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
Athlete’s foot therapy tapped to treat bat-killing fungus
Hibernating bats treated in several New York mines.
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Monday, March 22nd, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.
John Eisemann of the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, better known as APHIS, in Fort Collins, Colo., mentioned the new program during his talk, here, at the American Chemical Society’s spring national meeting. He was describing legal tactics by which wildlife officials can thwart invasive vertebrate species with off-the-shelf chemicals.
He noted, for instance, how scientists have used a contraceptive vaccine — one designed to control white-tail deer populations — on rodents. It offered a nonlethal approach to reining in the population explosion of non-native fox squirrels on a University of California campus. In another instance, wildlife managers employed a cholesterol inhibiting drug to reduce sex hormone levels — and the urge to reproduce — among invasive monk parakeets. And on Guam, Eisemann’s team designed special traps baited with neonatal mouse carcasses. Each bait had been implanted with a child’s dose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. It proved amazingly effective in strategically poisoning a major scourge, invasive brown treesnakes — and only that species.
The bat task force enlisted Eisemann’s help to make sure that whatever they tried would be legal. He’s the go-to guy for identifying what permissions, waivers or requests are required before wildlife managers can apply poisons or anti-fertility drugs. The Food and Drug Administration allows for some off-label use of an existing drug as a veterinary prescription. And that's the tactic he arranged for the task force to use with the athlete’s foot drug. ...
Hibernating bats treated in several New York mines.
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Monday, March 22nd, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.
John Eisemann of the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, better known as APHIS, in Fort Collins, Colo., mentioned the new program during his talk, here, at the American Chemical Society’s spring national meeting. He was describing legal tactics by which wildlife officials can thwart invasive vertebrate species with off-the-shelf chemicals.
He noted, for instance, how scientists have used a contraceptive vaccine — one designed to control white-tail deer populations — on rodents. It offered a nonlethal approach to reining in the population explosion of non-native fox squirrels on a University of California campus. In another instance, wildlife managers employed a cholesterol inhibiting drug to reduce sex hormone levels — and the urge to reproduce — among invasive monk parakeets. And on Guam, Eisemann’s team designed special traps baited with neonatal mouse carcasses. Each bait had been implanted with a child’s dose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. It proved amazingly effective in strategically poisoning a major scourge, invasive brown treesnakes — and only that species.
The bat task force enlisted Eisemann’s help to make sure that whatever they tried would be legal. He’s the go-to guy for identifying what permissions, waivers or requests are required before wildlife managers can apply poisons or anti-fertility drugs. The Food and Drug Administration allows for some off-label use of an existing drug as a veterinary prescription. And that's the tactic he arranged for the task force to use with the athlete’s foot drug. ...
... "The exact cause of mortality of affected bats is not yet fully understood, but the newly identified fungus is considered a likely contributor," Marvin Moriarty, northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the natural resource committee yesterday.
The fungus invades the skin, underlying tissue and particularly the wings, which help to balance complex physiological processes such as body temperature. All six bat species that hibernate in the Northeast have been impacted and scientists fear the syndrome will spread to large bat populations in the South and Southwest -- and that some species may never recover even if a solution is found.
"Bats differ from most other small mammals in that they have long lives and reproduce slowly," Moriarty said.
Bats are insect-eaters and help human agriculture. The 1 million killed would have consumed 8,000 pounds of insects in a single summer night, scientists said.
"The level of nightly consumption by one little brown bat would be equivalent to a 150-pound teenage boy eating approximately 300 quarter-pounders. Translated to the number of insects that would not be eaten by one little brown bat in your backyard on a given night, it amounts to the equivalent of 60 medium-sized moths or over 1,000 mosquito-sized insects," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University.
The fungus invades the skin, underlying tissue and particularly the wings, which help to balance complex physiological processes such as body temperature. All six bat species that hibernate in the Northeast have been impacted and scientists fear the syndrome will spread to large bat populations in the South and Southwest -- and that some species may never recover even if a solution is found.
"Bats differ from most other small mammals in that they have long lives and reproduce slowly," Moriarty said.
Bats are insect-eaters and help human agriculture. The 1 million killed would have consumed 8,000 pounds of insects in a single summer night, scientists said.
"The level of nightly consumption by one little brown bat would be equivalent to a 150-pound teenage boy eating approximately 300 quarter-pounders. Translated to the number of insects that would not be eaten by one little brown bat in your backyard on a given night, it amounts to the equivalent of 60 medium-sized moths or over 1,000 mosquito-sized insects," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University.
Scientists unearth most primitive bat ever found
Wed Feb 13, 2008
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most primitive bat ever found fluttered around about 52 million years ago, but lacked a key feature seen in most bats -- the ability to echolocate, hunting and navigating using a kind of sonar.
A team of scientists announced the discovery on Wednesday of a medium-sized ancient bat called Onychonycteris finneyi that possessed fully developed wings and was completely capable of flying. But they said that based on the evidence from its skeleton it lacked the ability to echolocate. ...
Wed Feb 13, 2008
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most primitive bat ever found fluttered around about 52 million years ago, but lacked a key feature seen in most bats -- the ability to echolocate, hunting and navigating using a kind of sonar.
A team of scientists announced the discovery on Wednesday of a medium-sized ancient bat called Onychonycteris finneyi that possessed fully developed wings and was completely capable of flying. But they said that based on the evidence from its skeleton it lacked the ability to echolocate. ...
Bat triggers alarm and closes tunnel
August 10, 2007
BERLIN (AP) -- A bat set off a fire alarm in a German highway tunnel early Friday, forcing an hour-long closure and causing long delays, police said.
Police in Goettingen said the animal apparently landed on a smoke detector or a pipe in the Heidkopf tunnel -- triggering a fire alarm, which automatically led to the tunnel's being closed in both directions at about 4:45 a.m. ...
August 10, 2007
BERLIN (AP) -- A bat set off a fire alarm in a German highway tunnel early Friday, forcing an hour-long closure and causing long delays, police said.
Police in Goettingen said the animal apparently landed on a smoke detector or a pipe in the Heidkopf tunnel -- triggering a fire alarm, which automatically led to the tunnel's being closed in both directions at about 4:45 a.m. ...