Bats
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Bracken Cave tonight!
I just wanted to share that tonight your faithful mod aka me will get to go to Bracken Cave and see millions of bats fly out of it for their nightly hunt. I am so excited and wanted to share the joy. I doubt I will get any decent pics because I will be enjoying the show, but here is a picture from their Instagram.
Squeeee!
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Surprising New Research Links Infant Mortality to Crashing Bat Populations | Without bats to eat insects, farmers turned to more pesticides, a study found. That appears to have increased infant deaths
www.nytimes.com Surprising New Research Links Infant Mortality to Crashing Bat PopulationsWithout bats to eat insects, farmers turned to more pesticides, a study found. That appears to have increased infant deaths.
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13056072
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Found a bat in my house. Story inside.
So in the middle of the night I heard a noise that I thought was some kind of bug. After 10 - 15 minutes I realized that whatever it was wasn't going away on it's own, so I got up to shoo it away. This little guy was on the floor screaming at the slider door being harassed by my two cats. I don't have a chimney or attic, so I have no idea how they got inside. When I opened the door, instead of taking flight, they simply hopped out the door froggy style. Were they injured? I don't think my cats did it if so, because they mostly just seemed confused by the poor creature. And what were they doing in the house?
Additional pictures of my unexpected guest being rudely gawked at by my feline friend:
And yes, I'm taking my cats to the vet just in case they got bitten.
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone concerned. I have contacted a doctor and she said that given the full details of the story I shouldn't need to worry. The poor thing was inside for *at most" an hour when everyone was awake, so it's highly unlikely to have bitten anyone before being spotted by me. The only concern remains the cats, who as mentioned found the bat before I did. I plan to vaccinate them ASAP. Once again, THANK YOU, but doc says I'm fine.
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Bats and viruses: a death-defying friendship
Fascinating study on the symbiotic relationship that evolved in bats and viruses and explains why they are such prevalent vectors of viral disease
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German article about metabolism/heart rate control for energy management in bats (Link leads to Google Translate version into English)
Original in German:
https://www.tagesschau.de/wissen/forschung/fledermaeuse-energie-100.html
- www.theguardian.com Where are all the bats? – alarm as numbers fall in England
Decline blamed on washout summer driving down population of insects, butterflies and moths they feed on