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Bat Night with U.S. Fish and Wildlife
As you all know I contacted the US Fish and Wildlife guys about the bats coming to the hummingbird feeders each night because they are doing a study on nectar feeding bats in Arizona and they decided to come out and check out my bats. The wildlife guys showed up shortly after 7 pm. The bats were already on the feeders.
The wildlife guys set up to big mist nets in front of the feeders to try to catch a few bats. They measure the bat, weigh the bat, take a DNA sample and let the bat go. (It is hard to take photo of a net in the dark)
Above is a photo of a netted bat They get pretty tangled up in the net.
They very carefully remove the bat from the net. The US fish and wildlife guys are very gentle removing the bats from the net.
As you can see… the little bat is fine. It is amazing to see a bat up this close. They look so much smaller all tucked in than they do when they are flying. The bats coming to our feeder were Lesser Long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris curasoae) A species that feeds on the nectar. They migrate up from northern Mexico and arrive in south-central Arizona when columnar cactus begin flowering in late spring. The bats drink the nectar and then eat the fruit of saguaros while moving east across southern Arizona. During late summer and early fall the lesser longed-nosed bats reach southeast Arizona where their primary food source becomes agaves and urban hummingbird feeders. Lesser long-nosed bats are federally listed as an endangered species in both the U.S. and Mexico
They swab the bats mouth to get the DNA sample and put the sample in a little vile that they have marked with info on location. A study being done is using this DNA to find out more about the bats.
They measure the bats wing… well actually the length of one of the bones in the wing.
Put a little mark on its head with a marker so if they catch the same bat, they won’t put it through all the measuring and DNA collecting, they just let it go. The marker mark wears off in a few days or weeks. So far they have found no good way to tag a bat. They can not be leg banded like birds because of the way their feet are designed, the band would slip off. Though they could be wing tagged, that would puncture their skin and could lead to infection so they don’t wing tag them either. A few of the bats in this year’s study had tiny radio emitters put on them. The emitters are so tiny that the batteries only last a few weeks. They are actually glued on the bats, they fall off during grooming but they stayed on long enough for the study to find out where the bats went, how far they traveled and where they were living.
Look at its overall condition. Check what sex it is and if female, if it was nursing this year. They can tell if it was a nursing bat by whether its fur has been rubbed down near its nipples. Bats are mammals, they nurse their young just like any other mammal. The wildlife guys told us that bats can mate, but then hold the sperm or fertilized egg until conditions are right to continue with the pregnancy. If there is not enough food, they egg never develops.
Then weigh it. Ones all that is done they let the little guy/gal go.
Amazing little creatures, bats. If you look at the photo above and imagine your arm and hand you can see that a bat’s wing is actually a webbed hand with super long fingers. The little claw at the top of the wing would be the thumb.
Look how darn cute the little guys are. They remind me of tiny tiny puppies. We only caught two bats that night in the net. Both were female, and neither had been a nursing mother. They may have been this year’s baby bats all grown up.
To see the difference between lesser long nosed and Mexican long tonged bats see the membrane on the legs of lesser long nosed bats is deeply cut giving the appearance of wearing a pair of pants. The Mexican Long-tongued Bat is slightly smaller with a longer snout than the Lesser Long-nosed. The membrane between the legs is not so deeply incised and has been described as a “skirt.”
More cool bat links
http://www.desertmuseum.org/pollination/bats.php
http://www.colossalcave.com/bats.html
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/Movement_Patterns_Lesser_Longnosed_bats.shtml
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/03/19/how-to-be-a-bat-life-in-motion/
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User Comments
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Oddly enough their hair is kind of wiry. I had expected them to be soft like a mouse but they are much more woolly. Their wings are so amazingly cool. Way thinner than you would ever think anything could be yet leathery and really stretchy. Very cool creatures, very cool! |
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I was actually talking about the net around the bat... not the bat itself. Lol. |
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LOL OK well silly me, still I was surprised at the way the bat fur felt. I would guess it has to keep them warm so woolly would be better than soft. Thanks again for stopping in and for your wonderfully funny comments. |
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Picture #10- "Yeah, we ran out of weed, so we got this to smoke now."
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LOL, you are too too funny. Thanks for checking out the post and for your always welcome silly comment. Have and excellent day! |
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It is so neat to see them up close and it was an awesome experience for you I am sure. Thank you for sharing! |
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Thanks Kat, glad you enjoyed the post. It was a very cool esperience and very interesting. We had a great time learning and seeing the bats close up. They are amazing little creatures. Thanks for stopping in to check out the post and for your nice comment. Have a great day. |
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The last picture seems to be saying, "C'mon...are we done yet? I am SO going to gnosh on that finger in a minute." I am surprised about the fur. I thought they had smooth/soft hair like mice, too. Learn something new every day. Thanks! |
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LOL, she does look as if she is done. One funny thing about these nectar feeding bats according the the wildlife guys is they almost never bite. Two of the guys never put on gloves at all, not even to get the bats out of the net. Though they did tell me there are some types of bats that they study, that do bite and the easiest way to get those guys out of the net is to let them bite onto the leather glove, the hold onto the glove the whole time. I too was surprised about how the fur felt. I imagined it to be soft and though in a way it was soft, it was not as smooth as I had thought it would be. Thanks so much for taking the time to check out the post and for your comment. Have a great day. |
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What a wonderful, insightful post and great pictures you are known for. Many thanks for this I love it. |
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Thanks so much for stopping by to see it. I was so excited about our bats being in the study and that we could be there to see everything close up. What a wonderful experience it was. The US fish and wildlife guys kept thanking us for letting them come out, it was funny to think of because I was thanking them for coming out. I just hope we get the chance to be involved again sometime. It is not often one can be involved with something so cool and interesting. Thanks for your great comment. Have a wonderful day. |
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lucky, lucky you!!...they are tooo cute....and not scary at all....lol |
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I know, I am very lucky to have had the chance to be part of this. It was very cool. I agree, these little bats don't look scary at all. They are amazing little creatures. Thanks so much for taking the time to view the post and for your comment. Have a great day. |
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that was amazing! Very, very cool. It was even better that you contacted the right people and they came out to check out your bats. Thanks for all of this, I think they are very misrepresented as animals. |
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So glad you enjoyed it. These bats are so cool to watch, we were lucky that they were doing a study on them. I found out about the study on the internet. It was so very cool to see the bats so close up and to learn so much about them. I have to agree, bats are often misrepresented. When people thimk of bats they think of vampires... I think the only vampire bats are in south america and africa. Most of the bats in the US eat bugs, some drink nectar like the ones in my post. Insect eating bats can eat 600 to 1000 bugs per night. How is that for pest control? Bats like anything else are amazingly cool creatures. Thanks for taking the time to check out the post and for your comment. Have a great day |
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They're so tiny. Thanks so much for the information. |
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I know, they look so much smaller than I would have thought by watching them at the feeder. They are really just amazing creatures. So glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and see it and for your nice comment. Have a wonderful night. |
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How facinating, and yes, they are just cute as can be! I think bats may have a bad rap because they were arbitrarily chosen as the 'vampire' image. |
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Thank you, so very glad you enjoyed the post. I agree, bats do get a bad rap. They are amazing and much needed creatures. I have learned so much about bats in the past few months due to these little guys visiting my feeder. Though the bats here in my post feed mainly on nectar, there are also many bats that feed on insects, they can eat up to 600-1000 bugs a night. Thanks so much for your visit, taking time to read the post and for your nice comment. Have a great day. |
this is GREAT |
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So glad you enjoyed it, I think it is one of my most interesting posts so far. Thanks for your visit and comment. Have a great day! |
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VERY cool post! It was very informative as far as what they are doing with the bats to gain knowledge about their habits. I'm so glad you got the chance to do this! Thanks for sharing the adventure with us, Meg!! |
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So glad you enjoyed it. It was great to see the little bats up so close. They are a lot smaller than I thought they were and a lot cuter.:) Sorry it took so long to get this posted. It was a cool night. We might get to do it again next year. Thanks for your visit and comment. Have a great day. |
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What a wonderfully educational post! How great that the US Fish and Wildlife guys were doing a study and you helped them with it. The pictures you were able to take while they were working with the bats are amazing. Thanks for sharing your experience with us! |
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So glad you enjoyed the post. It was very cool having them out to study the bats. I hope they come back next year. I would love to do the whole thing over again. It was really cool seeing the bats so close up. They are a lot smaller looking close up and not flying. Thanks for taking time to read the post and for your great comment. Have a wonderful day. |
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you lead a mighty interesting life, the bats were so cute! Cant wait to read the rest of your posts now :-) |
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We had a blast that night. It was amazing to see the bats so close. Very cute little guys, well actually gals... :) Thanks for your comment. I hope to be lucky enough to have the wildlife guys come back next year. |
Every day is blue day. If you encounter a setback, please look up to the sky, if only the sky is blue, you don't lose the hope. |
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Déjà vu I think you posted this before, still a good message. |
Picture #4 looks like a bat full of pubic hair... Brazilian wax anyone?