bats

Pipistrelle bats have a magnetic compass and calibrate it at sunset, according to a new study. An international team of researchers led by the University of Oldenburg has used behavioral experiments to show that two different components of the Earth’s magnetic field influence the orientation of these animals. Like birds, they...

While some wildlife species thrive well in cities, it’s harder for large, insectivorous bat species to find enough food. To get their fill, city-dwelling common noctules (Nyctalus noctula) have to hunt longer than their rural counterparts and yet they catch fewer insects. While rural bats hunt together, their urban...

This photo is from the Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre’s FB page.

Why choose a state bat...

Credit goes to Alyson Brokaw aka alyb_batgirl.

The cranky sounds are too much. The poor guy is scared, but he is in good hands.

Catching bats is a difficult task—they’re small, they fly and they blend into the night when they’re out after dark. That can make studying these mammals challenging, despite their ubiquity: bats are found on nearly every part of the planet except the most extreme hot and cold, and they’re all over Arizona....

Every summer, outside Mason Texas, approximately 4 million pregnant female Mexican Free -tailed bats come to give birth. Over the next couple of months, the babies grow, start flying with their moms, and eventually fly home. Not quite the size of Bracken, but at that time of year it’s one of the largest bat colonies in the...

The Mexican Free-tailed bats have already started heading south for the winter, but we had local press come by to say hi and help spread the word about bat conservation.

The little guy tries an evasive maneuver against the hawk.

Most every night, raptors line up for the bat buffet at Bracken Cave Preserve. The bats pour out of the cave for about 3 hours. he bats exiting is a swarming defense strategy to not getting eaten. When you see a young or sick bat stray from the main cloud of bats, the raptors take advantage of the opportunity. Here is one of...