Tonight, August 29, 2020, is International Bat Night. The UNEP/Eurobats organization explains: The Bat Night has taken place every year since 1997 in more than 30 countries on the last full weekend of August. Nature conservation agencies and NGOs from across Europe pass on information to the public about the way bats live and their […]
Tag: bat
What is it like to be a (drunken) bat? [two studies]
Driving whilst under the influence of alcohol is widely regarded as dangerous. So, perhaps flying whilst intoxicated, if you’re, say, a fruit bat, might be unwise too? Two scientific research groups have experimentally tested the flying performance of fruit bats whilst tipsy (the bats, not the researchers). But the results are, if not contradictory, somewhat […]
‘Harvesting the guano of insectivorous bats: is it sustainable?’
A new paper in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Vol 7, No 6 (2015) asks, and answers the question: ‘Harvesting the guano of insectivorous bats: is it sustainable?’ Investigators Thet Thet and Khin Mya Mya focused their studies on one cave, in a complex of four caves on Sudaung mountain, Sintkaing Township, Mandalay Region (21044.941’N […]
‘WIILTBA’ (bat! rat! rock!) questions – a partial listing
This month it’s (roughly) the 40th anniversary of the publication of Professor Emeritus Thomas Nagel‘s now-famous philosophical essay entitled : What Is It Like To Be a Bat? ( Philosophical Review, 83, no. 4 ) Since then, a considerable number of other academic writers, researchers and philosophers have paid tribute to professor Nagel’s bat paper […]
The breakfast-cereal bat comes to roost at the museum
The pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) that made headlines (and this blog) in Germany last November, after the Chemisches und Veterinäruntersuchungsambt (CVUA-Stuttgart) reported its find in a box of breakfast cereals, is in the news again. The mummified insectivore is now a registered specimen (NMR 9990- 03109) in the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. […]
Die Fledermaus in the breakfast cereal
Chemischen und Veterinäruntersuchungsämter (CVUA) in Stuttgart, Germany, issued a report about a recent investigation. Translated (automatically, by Google) into English, it begins: Surprise at breakfast A report from our laboratory work Consumers found mummified bat in wholegrain wheat flakes A curious appeal trial was recently presented to us: consumers had in their “mini Zimties whole […]
Medical Reaction to Bats in Flight in an Airplane
Bats can present a medical hazard even while they are in flight — even flying at altitudes far higher than bats normally attain. The Centers for Disease Control explains how and why: “Rabies Risk Assessment of Exposures to a Bat on a Commercial Airliner — United States, August 2011,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), […]
Bat on a plane, Snake in an MRI tube
Reminiscent, in a general way, of the film Snakes on a Plane, here are two recent (or fairly recent) instances of scary (if you find them scary) animals interacting with humans inside a machine. Bat on a plane Bat stows away on Delta flight, CDC fears rabies risk to passengers The CDC [Centers for Disease […]