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bats are pretty cool. what bats live near you? i am in pennsylvania. this is my go-to bat:  the little brown bat is a very cute and commonplace guy. i've rescued so many of these over the years. they liked to swoop down my chimney and invade my house from time to time. in the short 9 months that my spouse and i were living in my childhood home, we had three bat visitors. three!! their population is at risk because of a communicable fungus resulting in White Nose Syndrome. populations have gotten stronger in recent years, but these little dudes still need help. i am going to put up a bat house in my back yard this summer even though i don't think we'll get any residents. i guess we'll find out!! here is another good pennsylvania bat:  this is the BIG brown bat. i guess they're bigger than the little brown bat. i honestly can't tell them apart and have no idea if i've had any encounters with them.  the eastern red bat is another one i've never seen in person, but i think they're super cool. look at their little noses! look at those fierce little fangs! bats are cool. post more bats??? norris, custodian of cat named |
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Apr 19, 2023 13:57
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| # ? May 5, 2024 22:42 |
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great thread idea op! locally there are quite a few species of bat - most noticeably are the grey-headed flying foxes!  they are australia's largest species of bat! they are a megabat of the genus Pteropus and can weigh in at over a kilogram (heavy for a bat) and have a wingspan of over a meter in length!! they are friendly sky puppies that mostly feed on nectar and fruit and play an important role in pollination in areas of subtropical rainforest and dry scrubland.  grey-headed flying foxes are exceptionally long lived for such small animals, one in captivity reached an age of 23 and it's not uncommon for them to reach 15 years in the wild. as a megabat it does not have a tail nor does it rely on echolocation - having quite good nocturnal eyesight as well as a great sense of smell for sniffing out fruit and flowers! we have a ton of these friendly little beasties here - every afternoon at late dusk i get to watch hundreds of them flapping past overhead on their way out for their nightly feed and being very talkative to each other! all in all a very good bat indeed 
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Apr 19, 2023 14:24
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we have very excellent flying foxes hanging out at the local aviary!! they are the malayan variety.
norris, custodian of cat named |
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Apr 19, 2023 15:01
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aw they look really chilled out in that photo! we have a few species and one thing about them is they freaking love moreton bay fig trees. growing up we had a huge one of those in our backyard and would get huge hordes of bats flocking to it. i have a distinct childhood memory of one of my parents friends parking under the tree and getting very upset that the bats had pretty much covered his entire vehicle in uh guano lol |
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Apr 19, 2023 15:09
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We also have the little brown bat here in Washington State, I see them the most in the fall during twilight hours. I dont know anything about the bat but I assume its because thats when all the fruiting trees are doing their thing. Less commonly we have the Townsend’s big-eared bat:  The state's wildlife website says they eat bugs and are about 1-2 marshmallows in weight. Due to their sick rear end elephant-like ears their echo location is much lower and softer than other bats, making it harder to detect because of it. So they speak in bat-whisper, which you can hear here (translated so our pathetic human ears can comprehend it)     
RepeatingMeme fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Apr 19, 2023
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Apr 19, 2023 16:00
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the most ingenious species of bat is of course the Honduran White Bat, who are made of nothing but cotton balls and Corn Pops cereal:
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Apr 19, 2023 16:03
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FutonForensic posted:the most ingenious species of bat is of course the Honduran White Bat, who are made of nothing but cotton balls and Corn Pops cereal:  those babies are getting eaten alive by mosquitos 
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Apr 19, 2023 16:23
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those whisper bats do indeed have enormous ears!! I bet they would make excellent spies. I love them! norris, custodian of cat named |
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Apr 19, 2023 17:38
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FutonForensic posted:the most ingenious species of bat is of course the Honduran White Bat, who are made of nothing but cotton balls and Corn Pops cereal: these bats are fantastic here we just have these guys, the Basic Bat:  (mexican free-tailed bat)
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Apr 19, 2023 19:02
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what about their tails makes them free, i wonder? this one seems to be Very Disappointed in me. 
norris, custodian of cat named |
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Apr 19, 2023 19:51
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| # ? May 5, 2024 22:42 |
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we have 8 kinds of microbats around here 1. white-striped freetail bat  as you can see both white stripes and a freetail! this is our only one with calls that are audible to human ears - it sounds a lot like someone clicking two coins together or a sort of 'tink-tink' noise! like most microbats their vision is relatively poor but they can navigate and hunt using echolocation. despite being quite small they can eat hundreds of bugs in a night - crickets, moths, cicadads, cockroaches and mosquitoes are frequently amongst their prey often you will see them out at night flapping just outside of the range of streetlamps, snacking on the bugs that are attracted to the light! |
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Apr 19, 2023 21:13
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