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BATMADS BAT COURSE




PART:1


This course i am going to take all the forum members through is a bat course to improve all the forum members knowledge of bats and to have a better understanding of bats.

bats are the most misunderstood animals on the planet! people think they are ugly, scary, disgusting, riddled with insects and much more, but all they are are little balls of fluff that eat the insects in our garden.


riddled with insects: bats are not riddled with insects and infact only have one type of insect that favours them. it is called a bat fly. this insect to me is absoulutly disgusting! it feeds off the bats blood and cannot live without a bat as a host. there is no need to worry as this insect only likes bats and if it loses its bat host it will die due to the fact that it cannot feed. do not worry, bat flys DO NOT LIKE HUMANS AT ALL!!!!

bats are the second most diverse species of mammal next to the rodent familey. they consist of nearly 1000 species all over the world. bats live in almost any habitat except extreme desert or polar regions.

during the euocine bats evolved into two different species Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera. Megachiroptera is the old world fruit bats or fruit bats. Microchiroptera are insect eating bats. megachiroptera is split up in to ( this familey of bats is only found in SA) a familey called Petropodidae. from here it is split up into i think 8 or 9 species.

this is the first part and the second will be posted tommorow which is myths and legends ......................................................

Very interesting, batmad. I like bats very much, and agree that they are much misunderstood and much maligned, but I know very little about them Glad of this opportunity to learn more!

Ok lets move on........................

BAT COURSE PART:2

Myths and legends-

there are many myths that suround the bat world and most of them are not true! in this part of the course i shall explain and destroy some myths that haunt this siphistacated creture.

1) Vampire bats are found all over the world:

this is not true as the blood sucking vampire bat is only found in south and central america. there are also false vampire bats that do not suck blood but eat fruit. i think there are only one or two vampire bats that suck blood.

2) All bats have rabies?

this is not true! bats are wild animals and can catch the rabies virus, like all wild animals. but think of it, over 15000 people die of car accidents in southern africa but only one person in sa history has died of the duvenage virus.

there is only one ever case in SA of a man getting bitten by a rabies infected bat. The person who got bitten was a MR duvenage and he was bitten by a wounded and grounded bat. there are only two types of rabies bat virus's found in SA and they are the lagos bat virus and the duvenage bat virus. the duvenage bat virus has only occured once in SA, and the lagos bat virus has only been found in fruit bats. people estimate that less than 1% of bats have been infected bat related virus's.


3) Bat are related to witches?

this is not true!!!!!!!
bats are not at all related to witch's! people think that bats are cretures of the dark and are creepy. but as i say they are balls of fluff that eat our insects in our garden.


4) Bats nibble your ears at night?

this is also not true! bats do not eat people and the odd few suck your blood but eat you? NO!!!! this is a radiculas myth!


5) Bats puposly attack you?

no! bats are scared of you and will only attack you if they think they are harmed in any way.

these are just a few and there are much more that are not true!


Part 3 will be on bats echolocation.

What should one do if a bat lands on you or more so in your hair?

Pick it up and give it a hug!

Great topic batmad. I also love bats, I think they are fascinating creatures, we know so little about them.

Looking forward to the next installment.

i have had that before when we were at satara. the bat flew into my back and then landed on the floor. in this course i will explaine how to handle bats but that comes later on

if a bat lands on you, DO NOT freak out! with you acting like that you will harm the bat and possibly kill it! ask someone to bring you gardening gloves and gently take him off. the gardening gloves are for rabies (just incase )



if you have quistions post them on the "batmads bat course: quistions" thread.

this thread is for any questions about my bat course. please feel free to ask questions and me and the other forum members will try help you out.

BAT COURSE PART:4

Echolocation:

In 1793 a italian sciantist by the name of Lazzaro spallanzani first tested that bats could see in the dark. when i say see i mean have a six senth. he put a bat and a owl in a dark room. he let the bat and owl fly around ina dark rom, and discovered that both the animals could fly.he then blinded the owl and the bat and could see that the owl kept on flying into objects and the bat was flying around as if nothing had happend. he kept on doing tests and ttried to find out what the bat has that we do not.

later on in the 1930's an american man by the name of Donald Griffin used a electrical device and discoverd that bats emit a sound not hearable to the human ear. thus people discoverd echolocation!

A bats echolocation is critical to the bat. it needs it to hunt for insects and find its way in the dark. fruit bats do not have echolocation with the exception of the egyptian fruit bat which uses its echolocation to find its way in the dark caves it roosts in. Microbats (insect eating bats) have and are able to use echolocation. different bats have different echolocation frequancies. some range form the high pitched short eared trident bat to some lower free tailed bats and maurition tomb bats. the highest echolocation call in SA is emitted by the short eared trident bat which ranges form 200kHz to 210kHz.

some bats emit there echolocation calls from their mouths other by there noses. the bats who emit their echolocation calls from thier noses have nose leafs. these are sophisticated growths that allow the bat to call through its nose. you get nose leafs that are visable and others that are not. the ones that are are normally the horshoe bats and the trident bats. the ones that are not are the slitfaced bats. the slitfaced bats have their nose leafs on the inside of their noses.


The horshoe bat has particular names for the different parts of the horseshoe. they are the posterior nose leaf, the anterior nose leaf, the secondary nose leaf, the sella, the connection process and the lancet.

will go onto more detail about the different bat species later on in the course


next part will be...........Bat housing

'Mites, after reading this course, please visit the Bat quiz and test your knowledge.

Hey Badmad

I'm over 6 foot and bad used to scare the heck out of me. but you changing my perseption.

and i would never expected a guy as young as you to be so knowledgeable.

Nice one keep it up boet

thanks joekin!
i amaze quite a few people with my age

BAT COURSE PART:5

Bat housing:

over the years bats have been forced to move into local houses due to deforestation and the destruction of there original homes. in order to help bats get new homes and to take them out of people's houses, bat conservation international has started a bat house program to help the bats get a new home.
what they do is put up bat houses where needed and do research on bats roosting habits. they ar making great progress and discovering valuble information. anyone can get a bathouse or even build one! at the moment there are a few bat houses avalable, the cape serotine bat house, the yellow house bat bat house, the free tailed bat houses. the free tailed bats are high flyers and there is limated chance of it getting inhabited. you cant attract bats to your bat house! bats are constintly looking for new roosts and would love a new nice and cosy home

if you whant to purchase a bat house go to www.gauteng and northern regions bat interest group.com.
their you will find sufficiant info on bat houses and where to get them.

there is a massive bat house project and house in kamatipoort that houses thousends of angola free tailed bats.



next part.........................Where bats roost

Hi Badmad, that url you posted in incorrect

now

www.Gautengandnorthernregionsbatinterestgroup.com

if it does not work just go to google and type in gauteng bat interest group, and go to the first option

Hey Batmad! Great stuff on bats (and birds) you're posting.

Just googled a bit and the correct URL is:

http://www.batsgauteng.org.za/