For those of you who attended my recent bat class, thanks for coming out! I had a great time sharing what I know about bats and I hope you will join me in becoming a spokesperson for this amazing animal….or, for others who just happen to be interested, here are some great resources about bats.
General
- A Year in the Life of a Bat from Bat Conservation Trust
- Species profiles–this is super cool! You can put in your state and then get profiles of all the bats that live there. It also the range of the bats. A wonderful resource From BCI
- Watch this great video from BCI showing some of the world’s bats
Another video, this about the secrets of bats, a documentary that is 50 minutes long:
Myths
- From BCI, addressing bat myths
- Here are some resources, including bat myths, from Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation
Amazing Adaptations
- Bats have the fastest muscles of all mammals on Earth
- Amazing bat adaptations including singing bats, bats that hunt fish and bats that can live 38 years!
- Read about a bat species that SINGS! to attract a mate, much like birds. Some sing 400 songs per minute! And they participates in Lek breeding. This is fascinating!
- Batty dating to impress your valentine–learn about how bats attract a mate
Singing Bats!
- Did you know some bats sing? Just like birds, here is your chance to listen to some of these songs! It’s amazing! From NPR.
- from Wired, an article called the Hills are Alive With the Sound of Bat Song
- An article about discovering that bats sing, from Sciencemag, written by Virginia Morell
- Here’s a video featuring some bat songs:
Bats as carriers of infectious diseases
- Exaggerated disease warnings by Merlin Tuttle
- Some fallacies on rabies
- An article in a scientific journal about Testing New Hypotheses Regarding Ebolavirus Reservoirs
- Book review by Merlin Tuttle on bats and viruses
- Article by Merlin Tuttle about Ebola: Bats Prematurely blamed and an update given about this topic on January 12, 2016 in Nature News
- Another article about Ebola: Ebola virus researchers considering alternative reservoir hypotheses, bats unlikely
Bat Houses and excluding bats from houses
- World’s first artificial cave
- How to exclude bats from buildings, from Bat Conservation International
- What to do if you find a bat in your house, advice from BCI
- Everything you need to build a bat box, or buy a house and how to put them up, from BCI
- Resources for how to INSTALL a bat box
- Installing your bat house on a building
- Installing your bat house on a pole
- Places to buy bat boxes
- More places to buy bat boxes from the Organization for bat conservation (not to be confused with BAT conservation international!)
White-nose Syndrome
- A turning point in saving bats from WNS
- The latest on WNS by Merlin Tuttle
- Merlin Tuttle’s newest take on WNS and what we should do at this point
- from the US Fish and Wildlife Services–another resource about wind and wildlife
Wind Energy and Bats
- From BCI–an overview of the problem
- from the Bat and Wind Energy Cooperative–many resources about bats and wind energy
- An article about how altering the turbine speed can reduce bat mortality from the Ecological Society of America
- On the effectiveness of ultrasonic acoustic devices on reducing bat fatalities at wind turbines
- License to Kill:Wind and Solar decimate birds and bats, from April 2015 about how the wind industry gets away with killing large numbers of birds and bats each year, including endangered species, without having to pay fines from the Institute for Energy Research
On Vampire bats
- From Bat Conservation International–an article about Vampire bats in time for Halloween
- Why killing vampire bats doesn’t stop rabies from Life Science
- From Scientific American--an article about 4 people who appear to have developed natural antibodies to the rabies virus
- Explaining vampire bat rabies persistence from the Global Alliance for Rabies Control
Citizen Science
- Acoustic monitoring programs–if you live in western North Carolina and want to participate, contact
Katherine Caldwell
Wildlife Diversity Biologist
Associate Wildlife Biologist®
NC Wildlife Resources Commission
Asheville, North Carolina
828-545-8328
Interested in visiting a bat viewing site? Here are some resources for you:
- From B.C.I, a map featuring locations for bat viewing. You can click on them and learn more about each one.
- More about the bats at Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas and how to view their bats
- Bats of Bracken Cave, Texas
Want to become a member of Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation? It is a great organization that is run by an amazing man who has done amazing things for bats of our planet. If you love bats, this is a great way to give back.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or comments for me. I will be happy to try and look up things for you or point you in the right direction if the answer you are seeking isn’t here. Hope to hear from you soon!