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Bats Listen For Others’ Snacking Sounds to Help Them Find Food
When the guy in the cubicle next to you microwaves his tikka masala or tears open a bag of chips, your nose and ears perk up — food. Your senses trigger your brain to, maybe, head for the break room...
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Humans, Not Climate Change, Caused Caribbean Bat Extinctions
J. Angel Soto-Centeno About 25,000 to 3,000 years ago, land mammals died out in massive numbers from the Arctic to the Caribbean, which scientists have attributed variously to climate change and human...
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Students Engineer Help For Bats Fighting White Nose Syndrome
Kevin Keel would rather not infect bats on purpose. A veterinary pathologist at the University of California at Davis, he studies white nose syndrome, a disease that is decimating bat populations...
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Long Tails May Save Luna Moths From Hungry Bats [Video]
For butterflies, distinguished wing markings can be great for confusing predatory birds, either by scaring them or by luring them away from vital body parts. Now, it turns out that moths, the...
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How A Tiny Bat Might Interrupt A Massive Oil Pipeline
Wikimedia Commons A bat that may soon be added to the Endangered Species List could interrupt plans for a new oil pipeline in the Midwest. The proposed Sandpiper oil pipeline, intended to carry crude...
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To Save Birds And Bats, Create Wildlife Refuges In The Sky
There are wildlife refuges in all 50 states and territories protecting animals both on the land and in the water. But what about up in the sky? Plenty of birds, bats, and other flying creatures die...
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Bacteria Appears To Help Bats Fight Deadly White-Nose Syndrome
Mexican free-tailed bats exiting Bracken Bat Cave in 2012. USFWS/Ann Froschauer/Flickr CC by 2.0 Last week, a swarm of 150 bats was released near a cave complex in Hannibal, Missouri. Each of the...
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Bats Are Worth $1 Billion To Corn Industry
It’s almost that time of year again. The weather is cooling down, just in time for decorations of harvest and Halloween to adorn candy shelves and craft stores. Bushels of corn and bats are at just...
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Why Are Bats’ Immune Systems Totally Different From Any Other Mammal’s?
Teague OMara Bats may be both ecologically and economically valuable, but they are also notorious for transmitting diseases particularly rabies and maybe even Ebola. The bats themselves, however,...
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How Bats Find Their Way Through The Clutter
There’s this scene in one of the greatest movies of the 80s, “The Blues Brothers,” that makes me laugh and cringe every time I see it. Jake and Elwood are careening through Chicago, sunglasses on, at...
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Bats Are Actually Klutzes, Just Like The Rest Of Us
Bats are powerful, graceful and precise fliers…most of the time. While they use echolocation to dodge solid obstacles very well, sometimes the skies are just too crowded to avoid a few bat versions of...
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To Track A Meal, Bats Waggle Their Heads And Ears
When dinnertime rolls around, bats cock their heads and wiggle their ears. It turns out that these movements help with hunting. Big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), a common species in North America,...
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Will Growing Urban Noise Make Bats Worse At Hunting Down Food?
Rising above the sounds of crickets chirping, the distinctive whining croak of a male túngara frog can capture the attention of a big brown fringe-lipped bat almost immediately. These frog-eating bats...
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Now we know what an angry, hungry bat sounds like
Egyptian Fruit Bats are highly social animals, and often have vocal disagreements. Michal Samuni-Blank Jostling for food and living space can make for some tense interactions with your roommates. But...
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Bats are disappearing from churches in Sweden, and that’s not a good thing
A church in Sweden not affiliated with this study. Pixabay Bats in Europe are regular churchgoers. In fact, they often take up residence in the quiet upper areas of a church, whether an attic,...
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Hurricane Harvey’s putting bats at risk—but help is on the way
Bat out of the swells. Depositphotos Bat out of the swells. Bat World Sanctuary On Tuesday morning, Amanda Lollar and three volunteers gathered up canoes, headlamps, and life jackets. Then they headed...
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Bats’ echolocation has one major blind spot
When it comes to navigating at night, bats are among the champions of the animal kingdom. But it turns out that these fuzzy fliers do have one weakness: super-smooth vertical surfaces. Bats find their...
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One cave’s losing battle against a deadly bat fungus
I’m somewhere around 40 stories down when it hits me just how much we’ve lost. I am inching through tight cavern rocks on my stomach, hitting my (thankfully helmeted) head each time I give into...
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Holy Harp Trap, Batman! The gear researchers use to study bats
Just hanging around. Depositphotos From acoustic recorders to special ultraviolet lamps, biologists are calling on a suite of tools to better track, understand, and hopefully save America’s favorite...
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Vampire bats could soon swarm to the United States
Thousands of years ago, the United States was home to vampires. Fossils of multiple vampire bat species have been found in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, and other states, dating from 5,000 to...
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Bats, too, love the city life
At a sprawling 1700 acres Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park is a classic big city park. Surrounded by apartments, offices, and infrastructure, it’s a mixture of trees, trails, and pockets of nature...
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Looking for bats in all the wrong places
We may think that bats only reside in caves like this one, but that's not correct. Depositphotos There are at least three things that those of us with a passing knowledge of bats know to be true. Bats...
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Bats help grow our crops, but climate change has them on the move
A bat hanging out. Pixabay First, let’s dispense with the myths. Bats aren’t blind. They won’t fly into your hair. The vast majority do not carry rabies. Bats are not flying mice. Only one bat — the...
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Bat echolocation could help us understand ADHD
A big brown bat. Brock Fenton While hunting for dinner, the big brown bat must hone in on flitting insects and keep track of its surroundings to avoid crashing into them. Now, scientists have taken a...
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This probiotic is going to bat against a horrifying fungal plague
Since it was first observed in 2006, white-nose syndrome—a fungal disease spread by the aptly named Pseudogymnoascus destructans—has ravaged bats across the United States and Canada, threatening to...
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Female vampire bats regurgitate bloody dinners for their starving girlfriends
Nothing screams spooky season quite like vampire bats. The leathery wings, snarling snouts, and of course, the blood-exclusive diet, all make these one-of-a-kind mammals into real-life monsters....
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North American bats tend to roost among the fungus that kills them
TK. Photograph courtesy of Joseph R Hoyt For more than a decade, bats in North America have faced a devastating crisis as white-nose syndrome has swept across the eastern United States and Canada. The...
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Vampire bats know the true meaning of friendship—sharing slurps of blood
Who wouldn't want to be pals with this cutie?. Daniel Streicker/ Would you let a stranger borrow your car or your favorite pair of shoes? Probably not. What about your best friend? You’re arguably...
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Why do so many diseases come from bats?
Members of a newly discovered bat species, the Hipposideros bats, flying out of an abandoned gold mine in Western Kenya. B.D. Patterson, Field Museum Much about the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic...
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Vampire bats socially distance when they feel sick
Vampire bats have extremely complex social networks. They live in roosts that can include thousands of mammals. Simon Ripperger Vampire bats have extremely complex social networks. They live in roosts...
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From Bat Ears to Sonar
Nobody ever accused the bat of being beautiful. But its ugliest features—its freakishly ornate ears and intricately furrowed mouth—play a key part in the animal’s uncanny ability to track its prey....
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Both bats and humans test out talking as infants
Greater Sac-winged bat pups practice talking to themselves for minutes at a time. Michael Stifter The Greater Sac-winged bat, known for clinging to the sides of buildings and feasting on insects,...
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Vampire bats rendezvous with their friends when dining out
Vampire bats, Desmodus rotundus, hanging out inside a tree. Simon Ripperger Did your school dining hall offer a universally beloved dish? One that attracted long, meandering lines, one that people...
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The secret to these bats’ hunting prowess is deep within their ears
A big brown bat, a common North American species and a member of the "yang" group of bats with highly specialized inner ears. Photo by Sherri and Brock Fenton Bats are masters at detecting sound—and a...
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How vampire bats evolved to get the most out of their bloody diets
How did these blood drinkers evolve to stomach their meals? A new genetic analysis sheds light. Marco A. R. Mello Vampire bats are pretty unusual creatures, even by bat standards. They’re the only...
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Climate change could introduce humans to thousands of new viruses
Bats will be a primary driver of climate-related virus spillover. Deposit Photos In 2013, a toddler was playing under a hollow tree in rural Guinea that happened to be occupied by bats carrying Ebola....
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Turn your backyard into an awesome hangout for bats
Don't mind him—just a bat having a quick snack. Christian Ziegler/Minden Pictures | Courtesy of Bat Conservation International The eerie air of autumn has arrived, and bats are everywhere. At the...
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What bats and metal vocalists have in common
Daubenton's bat. Getty Images Some species of bats are known for the ability to echolocate, or use sounds to find food. Their spooky screeches, eating habits, and fangs have also earned them...
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How to get a bat out of your house
So small. Just wants to be outside, not in your home. Nils Bouillard / Unsplash Greetings, panicking homeowner! If you’ve found this article through a frantic web search, there may be a fuzzy visitor...
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Bat-like echolocation could help these robots find lost people
The robots are almost as cute as this lil' guy. Deposit Photos Echolocation is an immense benefit for bats—and certain superheroes. Typically, the sense works via the brain interpreting sound waves...
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The secrets to fighting the next pandemic could be in fruit bats
Some 60% of emerging infectious diseases that infect humans come from animals, and about two-thirds of those come from wild animals. Jorn Cheney, Swartz/Breuer Lab, Brown University This article was...
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Benefit your neighborhood bats with this DIY bat house
May the creatures of the night find this homemade bat house a better home than the attic vent. Jean Levasseur Bats are a critical part of ecosystems worldwide and provide a number of significant...
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The alluring tail of the Luna moth is surprisingly useless for finding a mate
A Luna moth (Actias luna). They can be found from Southeastern Canada to Texas. DepositPhotos Plenty of species have traits evolved for more than one purpose. Deer antlers are built-in weapons as well...
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Oldest bat skeleton ever found by paleontologists finally has a name
Skeleton of paratype of Icaronycteris gunnelli, the oldest bat skeletons ever found. Rietbergen et. all 2023/Mick Ellison/AMNH A team of scientists from the United States and the Netherlands have...
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How echolocation lets bats, dolphins, and even people navigate by sound
Dolphins, porpoises, and other toothed whales have mastered echolocation thanks to unique anatomical structures. Depositphotos In an environment without light, or where sight is otherwise useless,...
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These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be...
The bee species Hypotrigona kleineri, discovered in resin samples from eastern Africa first collected more than a century ago, is now believed to be extinct. Visual: Seckenberg Natural History Museum...
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How do bats stay cancer-free? The answer could be lifesaving for humans.
Egyptian fruit bats were one of the species included in a new genetic immunity study on bats and other mammals. YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images After getting bit by a bat bug at a recent...
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Scientists are confounded by the sex lives of serontine bats
Serotine bats are widely spread throughout Europe and Asia and have a 15 inch wingspan. Alona Shulenko The male sex organs of the animal kingdom come in all shapes and sizes from some that look like a...
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Why fruit bats can eat tons of sugar without getting diabetes
Fruit bats hanging on tree branches in daylight in Bangladesh on November 6, 2023. Md Rafayat Haque Khan/Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images Some fruit bats eat up to twice their body...
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Can niche lives of bats help them avoid the white-nose syndrome?
Myotis lucifugus, commonly referred to as the little brown bat, is one of the most widespread species of bats in North America, but its behavior in Alaska remains largely a mystery. Michael Code/Hakai...
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