Austin Bat Hospital Blog

The dogs have the last laugh

In an effort to keep my wayward dogs from escaping under various parts of the fense that surround the house and bat hospital, I finally decided to put up an electric fense.  It took me forever.  Somehow I tangled up 150 feet of wire and had to untie knot after knot.  I installed the box the wire attaches to inside the old chicken coop by the bat barn and then stood up and pushed my head right into a nest of yellow jackets!  I jumped up, screaming my head off and of course, fell into the electric fense.  The 3 dogs were very excited by the whole episode and chased along behind me, wagging their tails as I ran around the yard, slapping at the hornets in my hair and electrifying myself.  I finally whacked the last hornet off my head and yelled at the dogs to wipe the amused look off their faces.

One Step Beyond

I forgot to mention that I was filmed by an Australian film crew for some new Discovery Channel series called "One Step Beyond".  It is a series about new discoveries and the one they did on me was about the bats "talking" and possibly using a simplied form of grammar.  The recordings we have been getting from my free-tail bat colony are demonstrating that males, for example, are using signature syllables in some of their calls.  In other words, each bat uses a different syllable (characteristic of only themselves) in more than one call.  And they put their sounds together in a specific order to give meaning to a call.  "Dee dee dee deeee, dee dee dee deeee, zzzzzzz" means one thing, while, "Dee dee dee deeee, dee dee dee deee, trilllllllllll", means another.  Both mean I'm a strong reproductively active male with a territory over here, but one call is a warning to other males to stay away from that territory, while the other is an invitation to females to come join him.  (The one that ends with the trill is the romantic version sung to the females.)  I wish they would have also interviewed Dr. Pollak, the professor whose students are recording the differences in these calls, but they didn't.  So it will just be me and my bats.  The bats always look good (well, except for some of the ancient grandpas who are more than a bit scruffy looking).  I am the other hand, forgot to even put any make-up on, so I'll look a lot worse than the bats!

New Bats

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of some new bats tomorrow.  Some big browns will be coming to live with me.  I already have some big brown bats.  I don't generally get as many big browns as I do other species.  Central Texas is one of the few places in the U.S. where big brown bats don't live.  I'm always excited to have new arrivals.  I have one big brown that is having some dental problems, so I am having to brush her teeth every day.  She wasn't happy about it to begin with, but now she just calmly holds her mouth open and lets me brush away with a tiny interdental tooth brush.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you bat lovers out there!  It was a cool but beautiful day in Austin, Texas.  The sun was shining and wonderful smells were eminating from everywhere!  I ate way too much again (always do on Thanksgiving).  And to make it worse, I had two Thanksgiving dinners this year, which was lucky for me since I don't cook myself.  (The only thing that smells good in my house is candles!)

I blended up mealworms for all my bat children and added carrots, one of their favorites.  Everyone stuffed their faces and then lounged around like couch potatoes for the rest of the day.  Which reminds me, my children gobble up an outrageous amount of mealworms each day.  Want to help by giving a small donation for their dinner :)  Just call Sunshine Mealworms at: 1 (800) 322-1100 and make a donation to the account of Barbara French at Bat World Austin.  The little critters will appreciate it (me too).  Happy Holidays everyone!