“Pteropus Pselaphon” plate from The zoology of Captain Beechey’s voyage;. London, H.G. Bohn, 1839.
Since bat wings are just skin stretched between elongated finger bones, bats fly through the power of jazz hands.
Tiny Bats Roost Inside of Carnivorous Plants
BATS roost in big groups in caves. Wrong! If you’re a Hardwicke’s woolly bat, you prefer to sleep in a more luxurious – and private – place.
Kerivoula hardwickii roosts inside tropical pitcher plants in Borneo. These carnivorous plants usually attract insects, but Nepenthes hemsleyana lacks the scents that others have, so few bugs are lured in. Instead, it benefits from the faeces of this tiny bat, which provides more than a third of its nitrogen and may be crucial to the plant’s survival.
"This is the only bat species that has ever been found roosting in pitchers," says Caroline Regina Schöner, whose team discovered the bats in 2009. "These bats managed to find a niche that no one else is occupying."…
(read more: New Scientist)
photographs by Merlin Tuttle/Science Source
I think we could all use some good news:
You may have heard of white-nose syndrome - a disease that has been spreading through bat colonies, killing millions of animals. There was really fear that entire species would be wiped out. Well, scientists say that some bat colonies are recovering and new breakthroughs could help researchers develop better strategies for helping bats survive! Hooray!
Full story here. Awesome video about bats from jtotheizzoe here. Awesome video about Kenyan bat caves from thebrainscoop here.
Image: Ryan von Linden/AP
"Pardon me, Sir, but do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Count Dracula?" ^_^
