i recently mentioned that i had …microbats in da house.
well, they were released about a week ago…

i was asked to take care of two parti-coloured bats (vespertilio murinus, zweifarbfledermaus), two common pipistrelles (pipistrellus pipistrellus, zwergfledermaus), two nathusius’ pipistrelle bats (pipistrellus nathusii; rauhautfledermaus) and one kuhl’s pipistrelle (pipistrellus kuhlii, weissrandfledermaus).

one of them (i think it was a nathusius’ pipistrelle) was so clever, she landed either on my hand or on its terrarium cover when she was done flying around.
 

[view photos: more microbats]

a couple of bats (details will be posted) have successfully made their way to my place again. :grin:

they had been hibernating in people’s woodpiles, until they were disturbed (and luckily they were noticed before they were tossed into the fire with the logs, unlike nobody-knows-how-many others).

they’re quite active little fellows - and so, during every feed, some of them decide to take off and fly some laps in the living room :-)
for a short video-clip, please continue reading.
[more...]

local time: 15.11.2005 07:54

hello there!

i’ve just landed in cairns about two hours ago, and now i’m sitting in an (almost) waterfront cafe.
there’s actually not much to say. i had a nice flight and even got some sleep, and now i’m taking the bus to atherton, where i will be helping out at the tolga bat hospital.

 
anyway, here are two photos i just took nearby:

something i can already say about australia: people here - as well as in singapore - are extremely friendly and helpful. it’s almost unbelievable how much.

some more bat-related stuff going on:

last wednesday, there was a bat night in eng [G], at the dead-end of hinterriss valley.
hinterriss valley, the only valley in the “alpenpark karwendel” (something like “alpine nature protection area karwendel”) which is perennially inhabited, can only be reached (by car) through germany.

there is a plain near eng, called “ahornboden” - it’s a pasture with old maple trees, which is kinda special. i was told that the trees only had a chance to grow tall in a relatively short phase of non-cultivation (because of a war). when the area was managed again, the maple trees were already too tall to be eaten by cows etc.

after a delicious dinner (tiroler gr�stl) at eng alm, we went to this unique maple plane and set up the nets.
two common pipistrelles (pipistrellus pipistrellus, zwergfledermaus), one whiskered bat (myotis mystacinus, bartfledermaus) and a brown long-eared bat (plecotus auritus, braunes langohr) were caught.

it was this year’s last bat night (afaik), and we had a good result (as opposed to “nothing” and “next to nothing” at some of the previous bat nights)…

[view photos: bat night, eng/risstal]

also, i’ve uploaded a few photos of vespertilio murinus (parti-coloured bat, zweifarbfledermaus) , who stayed at my place for a few days ;-)
at the “showing-teeth” photo, note how the incisors can not be seen. bats do have incisors, too, but they’re immersed in order to prevent any misleading ultrasound reflections (or so it is assumed).
oh, and the last photo of this session is really the serotine bat (eptesicus serotinus), i thought this one was really cute ;-). the serotine bat was the sweetest one, by the way. she was released last wednesday within the scope of a “bat protection” press conference…

[view photos: vespertilio murinus]

 
something else you might find interesting: i took the time and went down to r�merpark with the batbox (=ultrasound detector) i borrowed, my mp3-player, a few cables and a flashlight.
since it was a kind-of warm summer evening, there were several bats flying around, and i recorded them for a while:

[listen to sample]
[ultrasonic bat calls] - mp3, 410KB
(those are the sounds of a single one, not far from the water)

you know that you didn’t get enough sleep - by FAR less than you normally need - when you’re sitting in the office, getting hot and cold flushes and feeling very nauseous.
i’m glad yesterday is over ;-)
some additional info about bad tuesday will be published soon.
an eigth day per week would come in very handy, these days…

 
monday was a good day, though:
two of my boxes overlapped when the wiltener sängerknaben boys choir commissioned a bat-night as part of their summer camp program.

[more...]

yes, it’s been two posts again, so there’s gotta be something about bats in this entry :razz:

the wwf is currently running a two-week mission to cut reed at schwemm [G]*.
schwemm is the last conserved swamp/moor in northern tirol, and fertilizers are constantly infiltrating from the surrounding agricultural areas. so now the reed is sprawling, and the nutrients are reduced (at least the wwf is trying to do so) by harvesting parts of the reed. here’s an article in german.
* yeah, the greenish-brown speck in the center doesn’t look very exciting, but it is! there are several endangered species of plants and animals there

like many others, i volunteered for a day, trying to make my contribution…

[more...]

i’ve been hosting young bats again, over the weekend.
this time, there was :

• the serotine bat (eptesicus serotinus, breitflügelfledermaus) that lived here previously,
• two baby common pipistrelles (pipistrellus pipistrellus, zwergfledermaus),
• an injured baby of kuhl’s pipistrelle (pipistrellus kuhlii, weißrandfledermaus),
• a northern serotine bat (eptesicus nilssoni, nordfledermaus), and
• an injured brown- or common long-eared bat (plecotus auritus or plecotus austriacus, braunes bzw. graues langohr), which unfortunately didn’t make it through the weekend.

the serotine bat can already fly (and will be released soon) - so i let it lap a couple of times in the room. it was amazing to watch!

[view photos: more bats]

 
BTW: because of the rising number of bat-related posts, i decided to open a “bats” subcategory.