SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
For the little brown bat—a small mouse-eared bat with glossy brown fur—a warm, dry place to roost is essential to the species' survival. Reproductive females huddle their small furry bodies together to save thermal energy during maternity season (summer), forming "maternity colonies." In the face of severe population losses across North America, summer access to an attic or other permanent sheltered structure, as opposed to just trees or rock crevices, is a huge benefit to these bats.
In a new study published in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecosphere, researchers with Ohio University, University of Kentucky, and the US National Park Service investigate and describe the conservation importance of buildings relative to natural, alternative roosts for little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone's iconic high-elevation landscape provides abundant natural roosting places but not many buildings. The study involved four visitor areas with several buildings that are known to host bold little brown bats, which are among the few bat species that will make their homes in structures that are actively used by people, allowing humans to get up close and personal. Sometimes, the investigation even involved researchers capturing them by hand.
[...]Over the summers of 2012-2015, researchers tracked individual bats in the park. Using temperature-sensitive radio-transmitters, the researchers measured roost preferences and body temperature regulation in adult male and female bats roosting in buildings, trees, and rocks.
Their results show that reproductive females roost in attics in the study area on 84% of all days for which they collected data, while males roost exclusively in rock crevices or trees. It appears then that outside of maternity colonies, adult males and non-reproductive females will roost by themselves or in small aggregations.
More information: Joseph S. Johnson et al, Buildings provide vital habitat for little brown myotis ( Myotis lucifugus ) in a highâelevation landscape, Ecosphere (2019). DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2925
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 21 2019, @05:29PM (5 children)
I kinda like the little furry things. To my knowledge, I have killed exactly two in my life. Found one lodged in the grill of a pickup truck, and whacked another on a motorcycle. I didn't feel bad-really-bad, but I wasn't happy to have killed them. I enjoy watching the little guys munching down on annoying insects.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday November 21 2019, @07:50PM
I agree - they're kind of cute in a fuzzy rodent sort of way, mostly harmless to humans (unless rabid - but rabies kills them very quickly, so just stay away from ill/injured bats), and just about everything they eat are things that annoy me (including those far-more-dangerous mosquitoes)
A fun display I discovered by accident - if you mount a board or something on a street-/yard-light so that you can't see the bulb (I didn't want it shining right in the windows) , you end up with a glowing cloud of insects at night with a dark spot in the center - and can get a great view of the brightly-lit bats swooping through the cloud as they chow down.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Webweasel on Friday November 22 2019, @12:56PM
My last house was pretty rural. In the autumn, the bats would fly at head height in front of my door looking for insects at dusk.
You can hear them! Their chirps are not so ultrasonic as to not be heard by the human ear. They click.
And they move like jet fighters. Watching them silhouetted against the sun was pretty amazing.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 22 2019, @03:33PM (2 children)
I don't want bats in the attic. Could we build bat sanctuary cities instead?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 23 2019, @03:00AM (1 child)
I don't know about that - won't the homeless start catching and eating the bats?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 25 2019, @02:26PM
Maybe the bats would start catching and eating the homeless?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.