Chiroptera Monthly
a newsletter for citizen scientists
January bat news!
Porter County Chapter welcomes 50 new Bat Adopters from our day at the Porter County Master Gardener's 2020 Garden Show!
PCC members; Annette, Gary and Don answered lots of questions about best residential uses of bat houses. Just remember these key facts when choosing a location for your bat house.
All bat houses should be mounted at least 10 feet above ground, and 12 to 20 feet is better. Choose a sunny location on the East or South facing side of your house. Bat houses work best with at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight (if only partial day sun is available- morning sun is preferable). The box will be more widely used if there is a water source for bats in the vicinity. Getting houses put up before bat season starts for NW Indiana in April is a good idea. If bats were using your attic or other undesirable location in the past and you've since blocked their access points, you should have success with a bat box when they return from their wintering grounds looking for a place to sleep.
Bat houses can be mounted on dead branchless trees, wooden posts, steel poles, pivot poles, or on the sides of buildings, but should not be mounted on leafing trees for three reasons: They receive less sun among the branches. Obstructions in the form of branches and surrounding vegetation make it more difficult for bats to drop into flight.
Some bat enthusiasts recommend rubbing guano on the box to lure bats with their own scent. When one bat starts to use the bat house, others will join him. And patience is key. Don’t expect bats to move in straight away. According to BCI, 90% of occupied bat houses were used within two years.
Plan your garden now to grow night-scented flowers that attract night-flying insects like moths. Bats can eat a wide variety of insects including mosquitoes, moths, chinch bugs, and beetles. We recommend looking at flowers like evening primrose, honeysuckle, goldenrod, and fleabane.
Find instructions to build your own BATcon bat house here. This makes a great winter project while waiting for your backyard bats to return in April.
Bat legs are backwards
A bat's legs have evolved to be backward from other mammals. Look at this bat - the bottoms of her feet are facing forwards and her knees pointing backwards. (She is also carrying her pup) Compared to other mammals, the legs of bats are rotated 90-180 degrees in the hip socket at rest (depending on the species). However, all bats hold their legs out from their body facing backwards while flying, because their legs are a crucial component of their wing. They also use the membrane between their legs to scoop up bugs. This would be impossible if their knees bent in the other direction.
Some species of bats can pull their legs up alongside their body to crawl, in kind of a frog-pose, though because of their pelvis shape they can’t pull them far enough underneath their body to lift their stomachs off the ground, and are forced to walk using an awkward sideways shuffle, or if their legs are extra pathetic, a sort of breaststroke using their wings to push off the ground.
Vampire bats are among the only bats to have evolved an upright walk, with their feet pointing backwards. New Zealand short-tailed bats are the other expert walkers, though they evolved a completely different gait than the vampire bat, with their feet positioned more sideways like awkward little ducks.
The New U.S. Quarter featuring Bats
Everyone’s change in 2020 is going to be a little bit battier.
The U.S. Mint has revealed the latest design that will appear on quarters this year as part of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program that was launched in 2010. These quarters will feature the Samoan fruit bat in honor of the National Park of American Samoa.
The design features a mother fruit bat hanging upside down as her cub peers out from her wings, evoking “the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring,” the U.S. Mint said. Fruit bats are much different than the small cave-dwellers that usually come to mind at the word “bat.” The animals are active both during the day and night and can have a wingspan of up to three feet, according to the National Park Service. Three species occupy the National Park of America Samoa, two that are large and one that’s smaller and eats insects.
“The design is intended to promote awareness to the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting,” the Mint said. “The National Park of American Samoa is the only park in the United States that is home to the Samoan fruit bat.”
The 25-cent pieces will be inscribed with the words “National Park American Samoa 2020,” as well as the tradition motto of the United States, “E pluribus unum,” which appears on all U.S. coins and is Latin for “out of many, one.” The new quarters will be released on February 3.
send us your bat poetry and art
Email your bat poetry or art to Annette Hansen at executivedirectoriwlapcc@gmail.com
Here is a poem by Thomas Rose at age 11 from Welling in Kent, England
Bats have shiny leather wings
Bats do many clever things
Bats dose upside-down by day
Bats come out at night to play
Bats cavort in soaring cliques
sounding ultrasonic shrieks
Acrobatic in the sky
Bats catch every bug they spy
Pictured is kindergartner, Dayton, who "drove his teacher batty for the first 100 days of school"