Bats in Our Backyard: Meeting Minnesota’s Marvelous Mini...

Bats in Our Backyard: Meeting Minnesota’s Marvelous Mini Mammals STUDENT

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DEVELOPMENT

Victoria Shaw Chraïbi Fulbright Canada – RBC Eco-Leader 2011-2012 Sarah Wilcox Education Department, Lake Superior Zoological Society Dr. Ron Moen, Ph.D. Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth James Eggers Bat Conservation International

PHOTO CREDITS

Images of Minnesota bats and cover photo: © Merlin D. Tuttle Used with authorized permission of Bat Conservation International Images of Webber: © Lizzy Johnson Used with authorized permission of Lake Superior Zoological Society

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Visit our bat website: www.nrri.umn.edu/bats

Lake Superior Zoo: LSZoo.org, email: [email protected]

Bat Conservation International: batcon.org

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: dnr.state.mn.us


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INTRODUCTION

Hello! My name is Webber. I’m an African straw-colored fruit bat. My family is from Africa, but I was born at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota. Because Minnesota is very different from Africa, it’s important that I always live in the zoo. Here at the Lake Superior Zoo, I help teach the importance of bat conservation. “Conservation” means the protection of animals, plants, and nature so that they don’t disappear. It’s important for people to learn more about bats and help their conservation. In Minnesota, there are seven bat species that are relatives of mine. In this book, we will have a lot of fun as I introduce you to the bats in your neighborhood. We will learn cool facts about bats and why they are important to Minnesota and the world!

Webber

P.S. I would love to meet you in person! Ask your teacher to contact the Zoo Education Department ([email protected]) to arrange for me to come to your classroom. Or, come visit me at my home at the Lake Superior Zoo!

Let’s take off!


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1. MYTHS AND RUMORS

Have you ever heard a mean rumor about somebody else? You know that rumors are not nice and should not be started; but once they are started, it is hard to stop them. In the past, people made up mean rumors about bats because they did not understand them. Even when people started learning about bats, the mean rumors did not stop. The good news is you can help stop the rumors! By learning about bats and telling other people the truth, you can help give bats a good name. It is important that people know bats are not bad because then they will protect them. Here are the most common rumors about bats: Bats are blind. Bats are NOT blind. Bats can see just like most other animals. Bats are vampires. Often you see bats as Halloween decorations, and in movies vampires can turn into bats. Of over 1,000 species of bat, only three bite large animals for blood, sort of like mosquitoes. Minnesota bats eat insects. Most bats eat fruit, leaves, nectar and bark. Bats fly into people’s hair. Bats do not fly into people’s hair. Bats are good flyers because of echolocation. They zig-zag while they fly to hunt insects, so it might look like they’ll run into you. But they have no trouble avoiding large objects in their way, including people. Bats are dirty and carry rabies. Bats are clean; they groom themselves like cats. Bats can become sick with rabies like any other mammal. Bats die quickly from the disease, so they often do not bite other animals and make them sick too. Even so, you should never touch a sick, injured or dead bat. Leave healthy bats alone, too, so they do not get scared and try to defend themselves by biting. If you do not bother a bat, it will not bother you. Bats are mice. Bats are sometimes called “flying mice,” but they are not rodents like mice and rats. Genetically, humans are more closely related to rodents than bats are! Bats belong in their own group of mammals called “Chiroptera,” which means “hand wing.”

What kind of bat do you want as your neighbor? Learn the truth about

bats and we can be great neighbors!


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Myth or Fact Connect-the-Dots The facts you know about an animal helps you decide if you should like and protect the animal or hate and fear it. People believe several untrue ideas about bats that make it difficult to like and understand them. Connect the dots below to see the way rumors make a bat look to people, and how the facts make a bat look to people.

Rumor Bat: Bats are vampires that have rabies, are dirty and covered with parasites, and attack people by flying into their hair.

Real Bat: Bats eat insects or fruit, are clean because they groom themselves like cats, are rarely sick with rabies, and do not dislike nor wish to hurt people.


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2. MEET THE STARS! Minnesota is home to seven species of bats.

Big Brown Bat

I have light to dark brown fur. I am 3.4-5.4 inches long with a wingspan of 13-16 inches. I weigh 0.4-0.8 oz. I like to stay in Minnesota for winter, and sometimes hibernate in buildings when I cannot find a better place. I am Minnesota’s most common bat!

Little Brown Bat I have beautiful glossy pale tan or brown fur, with extra long hair on my toes. I am 2.5-4 inches long with a wingspan of 9-11 inches. I weigh 0.2-0.5 oz. I like to stay home in Minnesota and hibernate in winter. I can live over 30 years!

Hoary Bat

I have dark fur with silver tips (‘hoary’ means ‘grey hair’). I have short, round ears and a furry tail. I am 5.1-5.9 inches long with a wingspan of 13-16 inches. I weigh 0.7-1.2 oz. I live in trees. I migrate long distances to the south to spend winter in warm places like Texas. I am Minnesota’s largest bat!

Silver-Haired Bat I have black or silver fur and black wings. I am 3.6-4.6 inches long with a wingspan of 11-13 inches. I weigh 0.3-0.4 oz. I live in trees. I migrate south to spend the winter in warm places. I can live up to 18 years!


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Tri-Colored Bat

I’m also known as “eastern pipestrelle.” My head and tail are dark and my belly is light. I am 3-3.6 inches long and have an 8-10 inch wingspan. I weigh 0.2-0.4 oz; I am the smallest bat in Minnesota! I like to migrate south to hibernate in warmer places during the winter, but I’m always back in the spring to raise my twin pups!

Red Bat I have reddish fur and long, pointed wings. I am 4 inches long with a wingspan of 11-13 inches. I weigh 0.4-0.5 oz. I live in trees. I migrate south to spend the winter in warmer places. I sometime like to hibernate by sleeping in dry leaves on the ground!

Northern Myotis

I have fluffy pale or dark brown fur. My ears, wings and tail are black. My ears are the largest of the Minnesota bats! I am 3.2-3.8 inches long with a wingspan of 9-11 inches. I weigh 0.2-0.4 oz. I migrate in early fall to hibernate in warmer southern temperatures. I can live up to 18 years!

Did you know there are more than 1,250

species of bats in the world? 47

species live in the USA.


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3. BAT BODY

Bats have lots of special body parts:

Wings: Bats have wings that are different from birds. Instead of feathers, bat wings are covered in skin. Their wings are called “hand wings” because they look like a human hand, except their fingers form the wing. Fur: Bats are mammals; all mammals have hair. Ears: Because bats fly in the dark, they have special ears to help them hear high-pitched sounds to navigate. Teeth: Minnesota bats eat insects, so they have lots of sharp little teeth. Feet: Ever wonder why bats hang upside down? Hanging upside down helps bats start flying by dropping off the ceiling into the air. Bats have special feet to hang onto the ceiling; when they hang upside down, the weight from their bodies pulls their feet closed so they don’t use any muscles to hold on. They just relax and let gravity do the work!

Build a Bat Use what you know about bat bodies to give this big brown bat what she needs to live in Minnesota.


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4. ECHOLOCATION Bats are not blind. However, seeing at night is not easy. Think about walking in your house with the lights off – now imagine flying fast through lots of trees in the dark! To “see in the dark,” bats use echolocation. Bats fly with their mouths open and chirp sounds so high-pitched that humans cannot hear them. These sounds bounce off objects as an echo. Bats hear the echo and know where the objects are located. This helps bats move around trees, avoid dangerous animals, and hunt flying insects.

Echolocation Maze Help the silver-haired bat move around the forest to catch as many insects as possible and return to the bat house without running into trees or being caught by predators. Circle the insects the bat eats. How many insects did the bat eat? A silver-haired bat can eat hundreds of mosquitoes in one night!

Fruit bats, like me, do not use echolocation.

Instead we use our sight and smell to find food. After all, fruit doesn’t run away!


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5. BAT MATH (answers on page 11)

DIET FAMILY LIFE BEHAVIOR 1.) Twenty little brown bats live in a bat house colony. If one bat can catch as many as 1,200 mosquitoes in one hour, how many mosquitoes can the entire colony catch in two hours?

5.) Minnesota bats have one or two babies (pups) every year. If a tri-colored bat has pups every year for 16 years, having one pup half the time and two the other half, how many pups would she have?

9.) Some baby bats are born in spring. They grow quickly, gaining 18% of their birth weight each day. If a pup weighs 3 grams at birth, how much would it weigh by the end of one week?

2.) To drink water, bats skim the surface of a stream and drink water drop-by-drop or lick the water off their fur. A big brown bat flies a maximum of 30 miles a night. How close would the big brown bat want its home to be to water?

6.) A bat pup can weigh 30% of its mother’s body weight. If a mother red bat weighs 14 grams, how much will her baby weigh? If humans were the same way, and a mother weighed 150 pounds, how much would her baby weigh?

10.) In summer, bats that will hibernate eat a lot to store energy for winter. They hunt after dusk and before dawn. A little brown bat catches 600 mosquitoes in one hour. How many mosquitoes can a little brown bat catch in 4 hours?

3.) Bats eat insects like moths. Bats can eat half their weight in one night. If a northern myotis weighs 12 grams and a moth weighs 0.3 grams, how many moths can the bat eat before it feels full?

7.) A bat colony can have over one million (1,000,000) bats living in one cave. Duluth has 86,000 people. How many times would the population of Duluth fit into a bat cave colony?

11.) In fall, a hoary bat migrates south to spend the winter. A hoary bat travels 1,400 miles from Duluth to Texas. If a hoary bat flies 20 miles per night, how many nights would it take the hoary bat to reach Texas?

4.) A Minnesota bat can eat half its weight in insects in one night. How much food could you eat in one night if you were a bat?

8.) White-nose Syndrome, a dangerous disease for cave hibernating bats, can kill 90% of a bat colony. If a colony of 10,000 bats becomes sick with WNS, how many bats might die? How many bats would survive?

12.) In winter, some kinds of bats hibernate. They have to wake up to drink water and urinate. If a silver-haired bat wakes up every 19 days during hibernation, and winter in Minnesota lasts six months, how many times does a silver-haired bat wake up?


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6. BAT BENEFITS Bats are important to humans and the environment. Minnesota bats are insectivores, which means they eat insects. They stop moths from eating important crops like corn. Minnesota bats also eat a lot of mosquitoes, which protects us from getting sick or being covered with itchy mosquito bites. Other bat insectivores around the world protect crops like cotton, which we use to make our clothes. Fruit bats around the world act as pollinators and seed dispersers for fruiting trees; this helps produce fruit that we like to eat, like bananas. Bat Benefits Word Search Find all the different plants we like to eat that need bats to survive, and other good things bats do that makes them important in our lives.

Word List U N I P R X B Q U Z E C S I D Banana P O L L I N A T O R V U T P I Carob R M M E H Z B O O G U C L S K Cashew N O O O L A J V D W R U O M Z Corn B K F S N K I G U Q M M S A R Cotton U A P A Q T C O H O P B B A V Cucumber F N N D C U J I G Y N E S S O Date Z A A E T R I N P O F R A A F Fig A T S N F T A T W E H S A C V Guava E N E O F M W R O F G E K G H Insectivore I V U T C A R O B E U G S A T Mango V I H T U E Z O S Q S U I B E Mosquitoes Q A Y O O N G T W J O A L F X Peach N R O C B H A I Y N X V C J F Pickle B G Q Q O T C S I T N A D E D Pollinator

Storytelling: The World Without Bats Create a story about how life would be different if there were no bats.

You’re welcome!


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7. ARE YOU A GOOD NEIGHBOR? Now we know bats are important for humans and Minnesota’s environment. But bats can also live in cities. Like other neighbors, sometimes they can be difficult to live with if you don’t know how to find solutions. Below, decide which is a good solution and a bad solution to each situation (hint: there can be more than one correct answer). Share these tips for living with bats with your parents!

Situation What Should You Do?

(1.) You find bats living in your attic.

(A.) Seal the entrance the bats use. Leave them and their babies inside to die. (B.) Build a bat house somewhere else on your property. Bats will move there instead. (C.) Put speakers playing static in the attic. The bats will not like the noise and move out. (D.) Hire a professional to humanely remove the bats alive.

(2.) You find a sick, injured or dead bat.

(A.) Touch it, pick it up and/or take it home with you. (B.) Do not touch it. Let an adult know you found it so it can be removed safely by a professional.

(3.) Your family is on a hike and finds a bat cave.

(A.) Go in and look around! The bats will not mind. (B.) Do not enter the cave. Entering bat caves can disturb bats or the cave ecosystem. Waking bats up from hibernation uses energy reserves, so they might not survive winter.

Remember: Never enter a cave or mine without an experienced adult guide! Answers to Quiz: (1.) B,C,D; (2.) B; (3.) B Answers to Bat Math: (1.) 48,000 mosquitoes; (2.) 15 miles; (3.) 20 moths; (4.) Depends; (5.) 24 pups; (6.) 4.2 grams; 45 pounds; (7.) ~12 times; (8.) 9,000 die, 1,000 survive; (9.) 6.78 grams; (10.) 2,400 mosquitoes; (11.) 70 nights; (12.) ~10 times.

Hey there, neighbor!


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8. WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME What is WNS? White-nose Syndrome is a fungal disease that kills U.S. bats. It started on the east coast in 2006. Once a bat colony becomes sick, up to 90% of the bats die. A bat colony in Vermont went from 400,000 bats to 36 bats in one year after they became sick. As of 2012 Minnesota does not have White-nose Syndrome, but it is likely the disease will come here. Help Minnesota protect our bats: 1. Identify It is important to know how to identify White-nose Syndrome. A healthy bat has clean fur and a clean nose. A sick bat is often covered with fuzzy white fungus on its wings, ears, and nose. 2. Report If you find a dead bat or a bat that is sick with White-nose Syndrome, tell your parents and have them contact the authorities right away. Call the Minnesota DNR toll-free at 888-345-1730 or go to www.mndnr.gov/reportbats. 3. Prevent There is no known cure for the disease, so it is better for our bats to not become sick in

the first place. You can help prevent the spread of White-nose Syndrome. If your family likes to explore caves, make sure you always wash your shoes, clothes, and equipment before you enter a different cave. This will stop the spread of the fungus that causes the disease. Do not enter caves in winter when bats are hibernating. Actually, it is best to not enter caves at all when you know bats are living there.

You can help protect bats by giving us safe places to live. Build a bat house! Instructions are at the back of the book.

Healthy

Sick

Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service www.fws.gov/northeast/wnspics.html

http://www.mndnr.gov/reportbats


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9. BE BATS’ BEST FRIEND Now that you know about bats, there are lots of things you can do to help protect them! Here are a few ideas:

Build a bat house so bats have nice places to live.

Volunteer to clean up trash from forests, streams or lakes. A clean habitat makes for a happy bat.

Plan a conservation project with your class or school.

Tell your political representatives that you want them to help protect bats with laws and research funding. Use the postcard below, or visit batcon.org to write a postcard for BCI to hand-deliver to your Congress representative.

Learn more about Minnesota bats and current research at www.nrri.umn.edu/bats and bats around the world at www.batcon.org

Date:

Dear

Please help conserve Minnesota’s bat species. Bats are important to Minnesota because…

Name:

Minnesota Senator

Bats are important to me because…

302 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Thank you for protecting bats! Sincerely,

Place

Stamp

Here

Thanks for learning about bats! I hope we’ll be friends for a long time!


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10. BAT HOUSE INSTRUCTIONS (adapted from BCI) Materials: ¼ sheet (2’ x 4’) ½” AC, BC or T1-11 plywood One piece 1” x 2” (3/4” x 1½” finished) x 8’ pine (furring strip) 20 to 30 exterior-grade screws, 1” One pint dark, water-based stain, exterior grade One pint water-based primer, exterior grade One quart flat, water-based paint or stain, exterior grade One tube paintable latex caulk 1” x 4” x 28” board for roof 2-4 exterior grade screws, 1½ - 2” Recommended tools: Table saw or handsaw Variable-speed reversing drill with bit Tape measure or yardstick Caulking gun Paintbrushes Hammer Construction: 1. Measure and cut plywood into two pieces:

26.5” x 24” (backboard), 21.5” x 24” (topboard) 2. Roughen one side of the plywood with deep

groves, especially on landing area. Space groove 1/4” to ½”, cutting 1/32” to 1/16” deep.

3. Cut furring strip into one 24” and two 20.5” pieces.

4. Place backboard on flat surface, roughed area facing up. Place 24” furring strip across top of backboard. Place 20.5” furring strips along sides of backboard. Place topboard on furring strips, roughed area facing down.

5. With a reversible screwdriver and drill bit, screw guide holes through lined up wood.

6. With a screwdriver bit, screw 1” screws into guide holes.

7. Line up roof board so that it is flush with backboard and equal portions hanging over each side. Drill guide holes, than screw in 2” screws.

8. With a caulking gun, apply caulk into all cracks and gaps and smooth. Let dry for at least one day.

9. Apply at least one coat of primer and at least 2 coats of paint.

10. You can hang the house on a pole, tree, or building. For hanging instructions, visit www.batcon.org.

Image Credit: BCI, www.batcon.org

Looks cozy!

http://www.batcon.org/

To the Bat House! Scavenger Hunt Instructions: There are bat houses located at four parks around Duluth. Use the clues below to find the bat house and a sign about bats at each park. On the sign, you can use the QR code to access bat facts to answer the Star Question. Bring your answers to the Lake Superior Zoo to win a prize! You must answer Star Questions at two of the bat houses to win a prize, but challenge yourself to find all four! Happy searching! Find more information at our website: www.nrri.umn.edu/bats Park Clues: Park Clue #1: Popular with picnickers since the 1890s, this park displays evidence of

Glacial Lake Duluth, trees over 100 years old, and a swimming hole known as “The Deeps.”

Park Clue #2: Completed in 1908, this home belonged to the wealthiest family in

Duluth. The estate was donated to become a historic museum and displays its original furniture and artwork.

Park Clue #3: Named after the family that homesteaded the area, this park has volcanic

rock that is more than one billion years old, some of the oldest rock on Earth.

Park Clue #4: Established in 1880, this is one of the oldest parks in Duluth and features

trails, waterfalls, and Elephant Rock. What are you searching for?

Bat House: Bat Sign: Hey Parents! Here are the answers to Park Clues: The scavenger hunt will be available starting in June 2013. Park #1 – Lester Park (Superior Street & 61st Avenue East) Park #2 – Glensheen Historic Estate (3300 London Road) Park #3 – Chester Park (14th Avenue East & 4th Street) Park #4 – Lincoln Park (West Skyline Drive & Lincoln Park Drive)

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