Quite Interesting Bat Facts

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Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 25, 2011 4:22 pm

I am watching QI right now (season 2 episode 9) and lots of bat info in this one! (You should all watch it, QI in general too...just google should pop up to watch) what I have learned so far:

- 18th century French scientist decided bats had an extra sense by putting cotton balls in their ears and watching them run into walls

- Figured out bats can see in pitch dark because they wouldn't run into the bells ringing them, but the owls couldn't "see" shit and rang the bells so owls must not have whatever sense that bats had.

- Batology is the study of blackberries of which there are thousands of species

- Batophobia is fear of being close to tall buildings

- Battology means pointless repeating the same thing over and over again
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 25, 2011 5:29 pm

Many species mate in the fall, the female stores the sperm overwinter, then bear young in spring...

In some countries bats are considered delicacies

Smallest bat is the size of a bumblebee and weighs less than a dime. The largest comes in at about 3 lbs.
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 25, 2011 6:04 pm

Is that as small as a bumblebee including wingspan?
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 25, 2011 6:27 pm

no, body size.
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby self-deleted_user » Mar 25, 2011 6:39 pm

How big are they with their wings? I want a cute microbat pet!

Do you think any bats will maybe be domesticated sometime? Because that would be sweet.
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby nathanroser » Mar 26, 2011 4:02 pm

Sungura wrote:Do you think any bats will maybe be domesticated sometime? Because that would be sweet.


I can imagine lots of non bat knowledgable people would freak out at the idea of having pet bats, but it would be awesome to take some bats out camping so they could eat all the annoying bugs. Farmers could use them instead of pesticides, and they could be used to control malaria and other nasty insect borne diseases.
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby botkin02 » Mar 26, 2011 5:49 pm

Maybe if we could domesticate bats we could train them to talk so they could tell scientists that they're the vectors for WNS. :thanks:
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 28, 2011 4:46 pm

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby slapout » May 7, 2011 9:51 pm

another cool fact is that when a bat is exiting a cave it always turns left not sure where i learned that one
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby wyandottecaver » May 9, 2011 4:22 pm

not sure where you learned that either, but it's wrong. I have watched literally tens of thousands of bats exit from at least 40-50 different sites, and I assure you there is no standard. Heck, I've watched them U turn right back inside, go straight up, etc.
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby tncaver » May 9, 2011 4:38 pm

When I camp out here in Tennessee, there are lots of bats flying around eating insects such as mosquitoes. I wish there were bats that eat ticks and chiggers. :big grin:

P.S. There are still LOTS of bats here in TN. I've even heard several reports that there are more bats in some caves than there used to be. Reason unknown.
Maybe they are fleeing the congested WNS bat cave incubators that the USFWS has created by gating hibernacula in the Northeast and elsewhere. :yikes:
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby Chads93GT » May 9, 2011 4:55 pm

chickens eat ticks.........
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby tncaver » May 9, 2011 6:10 pm

Chads93GT wrote:chickens eat ticks.........


Unlike Missouri, there are no chickens in the middle of no where in Tennessee. :laughing:
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby Chads93GT » May 9, 2011 6:35 pm

tncaver wrote:
Chads93GT wrote:chickens eat ticks.........


Unlike Missouri, there are no chickens in the middle of no where in Tennessee. :laughing:


Probably cuz they are all lying at the bottom of all those pits in a pile of rotting beaks and razor sharp talons!
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Re: Quite Interesting Bat Facts

Postby tncaver » May 9, 2011 7:35 pm

Chads93GT wrote:
tncaver wrote:
Chads93GT wrote:chickens eat ticks.........


Unlike Missouri, there are no chickens in the middle of no where in Tennessee. :laughing:


Probably cuz they are all lying at the bottom of all those pits in a pile of rotting beaks and razor sharp talons!


I haven't seen a single beak or talon on the bottom of a pit yet. Come on back down to TN and do a few
caves. You don't have to worry about those razor sharp talons or beaks Chad. :big grin:
But you better bring some bug spray for those ticks and chiggers. :laughing:
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