Here is one litle chap (yes, we looked) we were all hoping to find during our visit to Belize. They really are different, in behaviour as well as looks. They tend to scuttle around on the ground instead of using their wings first as most other bats would.
He's sweet! I like bats, they are such interesting animals.
Doesn't he have a lot of enemies, being a ground dweller - Belize has plenty of snakes.
(yes, we looked)
is that it on his head? ROTFLMBO
Cooool!
Is that your hand around it? It must be tiny!!
And what is that fleshy looking nob on the top of its head - natural, or parasitic? [Lopho ruefully remembers his own experience with Costa Rican rainforest botflies...:( ]
LOLOL Mark, naughty!
Gerddi, he's not a ground dweller as such, he flies very well, but he does creep up on his prey on the ground and has to beware of cattle, goat, donkey, horse etc feet while he's doing it. This is the bat which laps blood from the fetlocks of unsuspecting domestic animals. They (the bats) scuttle around like mice.
It's not my hand Lophophora, but a largeish male one. But you're right they're not enormous, about 7-9cm long, head and body.
That's a tick on top of it's head. Yes there do seem to be a huge number of parasitic beasties there. We found a sickly flycatcher fledgeling and a member of the party squeezed 34 botfly larvae out of it. Some friends have just come back from Peru with some too! Yuck - Please tell all...
Sorry philomel -
Was in no way calling into question the delicacy of a certain person's hand - honestly thought the bat was microscopic!!!! :)
Oh yes - botfly infestation in tropical birds. Once read an interesting essay on the biological *advantages* of having a cuckoo fledgling sharing a nest with one's smaller young.
And: "Yuck - Please tell all..." Sorry phi - this is a family site.... ;)
Aaw, spoilsport
nifty....odd about the tick...
This message was edited Tuesday, Aug 13th 12:43 PM
Cute, yes I see it something on head? Unicorn LOL
what a cool picture, did yall remove the tick or just let it be? I like bats too, they can eat up plenty of mosquitos and right now they are very welcome in my yard. Hmm...I think I need to build a bat box. I've seen shows on TV where the bats nick the hocks of stock animals and sip the blood. Pretty odd that it has something sipping the bats blood..I guess blood was made to circulate...oooo bad joke :-)
Yes Lisa, ironical. Spose sharing's what makes the world go round...........or something
This bat had a number of ticks and plenty of mites too. We were handling each bat for as short a time as possible and weren't in a position to take parasites carefully enough from them all, so that tick stayed there Lisa. We handled 128 bats in 7 days (or rather in a c2 hour spell each evening). We saw 29 species!
Wow, 29 species? How cool is THAT?!
ICE COLD gw! Didn't expect anything like it!
On the next to last day we even found a species not recorded in N Belize before!!!!!! And several were new to the sites where we found them.
another great and informative post! thanks for sharing...even the Yucky parts..lol
Thanks WW1! :)
Philomel:
I'm becoming interested in bats!
Never thought that I would say that!
Last year we had a red bat at the hawk watch platform in Cape May, N.J.
Are you Banding or on a count?
Were making bat houses, Wow I did say that!
Rutgers university gave us the plans.
Sandy
On the holiday in Belize we were catching bats in mist nets and harp traps and recording our finds, which was really interesting. We saw lots of spp I'd never seen before and never dreamt of seeing
Back here in the UK I'm involved in many projects. I join in with our National Bat Monitoring Programme where we count different spp on emergence from their roosts (Pip. pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus, Brown long-eared, Myotis nattereri. Then in July we do a field survey looking for pips, serotines (a bit like big brown bats), Leisler's and noctules. In august there's a Myotis daubentonii survey by water bodies. I'm also involved in banding serotines as part of a long term study in Kent and our group has recently got a harp trap which we are using for various studies - including investigating autumn swarming near known hibernacula. In the winter time we visit potential hibernation sites and record bats found. I also visit members of the public who are having bat related problems - oh, and do survey work on development sites to find out if bats are present and to work out mitigation strategies if they are. (I do similar work for dormice too)
We have a very active Bat Group in Kent and I've just organised a trip for eight of us to go over to N Ireland this weekend, where Mark is going to show us some interesting sites in County Fermanagh (and hopefully see Irish hares and Pine Martens too lol)
Fascinating! How neat to find so many different breeds.
weather permitting! :-( the forecast is heavy prolonged rain and we will be in the wettest county.
Oh no!! Something rude beginning with *!!
:-( indeed
Yes, Zany we're so lucky to be able to see so much!
Just realised you must have read to the end of that long post Mark :O
;)
Well, if it rains too much, you can always look for water shrews...
;)
(Is it true they have poisonous saliva? I thought the platypus was the only poisonous mammal, but then i'm ignerint...)
True Loph - or otters!!
I think the poisonous shrew is an old wives tale, though many animals avoid eating them because of the obnoxious smell from their scent glands.
(You can't be as iggerent as you fort ;)
phi -
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mammal/wshrew.htm is where I got my information...
But I really otter be careful about not believing everything I see on the net....
And concerning: "...as you fort." I don't, thank you. I eat a well balanced diet with just a modicum of legumes...
;)
Hi Mark:
Hate to ask but, I'm curious.
I know what they use in the Myst nets here for banding the "Raptors" Hate it.
What do you use for attraction in the net?
Sandy
we dont use anything to attract bats to mist nets. generally they dont see them and fly into them
