Night Friendsfriends Bats of the Americas

NightNight FriendsFriends Bats of the Americas

On-line Activity Guide

©Vilainecrevette / Shutterstock.com © © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org www.nwf.org BATS

Background

Origins and Relatives Did you know that the world’s smallest mammal, the bumblebee bat, weighs less than a penny?

Bats play a vital role in the health of our natural world, and are fascinating creatures. They are a group of mammals belong to the mammalian order “Chiroptera” which in Greek means hand-wing. All living bat species fit into one of two sub-groups, the Microchiroptera or the Megachiroptera. Members of the latter group are often called “flying foxes” because of their fox-like faces.

Diversity and Distribution The more than 1,260 species of bats make up approximately 20 percent of all mammal species, more than any other mammal group except rodents, and they are found everywhere in the world except in the most extreme desert and polar regions. Some 47 species live in the United States and Canada, but the majority inhabit tropical forests where, in total number of species, they sometimes outnumber all other mammals combined. Bats come in an amazing variety of sizes and appearances. While the bumblebee bat is at one extreme, some flying foxes of the Old World tropics have wingspans of up to six feet. The big-eyed, winsome expressions of flying foxes often surprise people who would never had thought that a bat could be cute. Some bats have long angora-like fur, ranging in color from bright red-brown or yellow to jet black or white. One species is

Ears

Tragus Nose Thumb Upper Arm Second Finger

Third Finger

Fur

Elbow Knee Wing Fifth Finger Leg Membrance Calcar Toes Fourth Finger Tail Membrane Tail ©Kirsanov / Shutterstock.com

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 3 BATS National Wildlife Federation

A bat emits a high-frequency sound, which hits an object and bounces back to the bat, telling it how far the object (prey) is. ©Linda Bucklin / Shutterstock.com ; ©scosi0-9 furless, and another even has pink Young bats In temperate regions, cold winters wings and ears. A few are so brightly and the subsequent lack of insect patterned that they are known as prey force bats to migrate or butterfly bats. Others have enormous grow rapidly, hibernate. Most travel fewer than ears, nose leaves, and intricate facial 300 miles to find a suitable cave or features that become more fascinating often learning abandoned mine, where they may when their sophisticated role in remain for more than six months, navigation is explored. to fly within surviving solely on stored fat reserves. However, several species are long- three weeks. distance migrators, traveling from Navigation and Migration as far north as Canada to the Gulf Like dolphins, most bats states or Mexico for the winter. communicate and navigate with A few species can survive short- high-frequency sounds, which they term exposure to sub-freezing bounce off objects to determine temperatures, enabling them to where and how far they are. Using developed by humans. In addition, overwinter in crevices in cliff faces or sound alone, bats can “see” everything bats are not blind and many have inside the outer walls of buildings. but color, and in total darkness excellent vision. they can detect obstacles as fine as a human hair. The sophistication of these unique echolocation systems surpasses current scientific understanding and has been estimated to be billions of times more efficient than any similar system ©argonaut / Shutterstock.com Skelton image of bat 4 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS

Proportion of bat species with each kind of bat diet.

Insects

Fruit Seeds dropped by bats can

account for up to Nectar Blood Fish Meat 95 percent of forest regrowth

Butterfly ©Kamira / Shutterstock.com; Dragonfly ©alle / Shutterstock.com; Mosquito ©Henrik Larsson / Shutterstock.com; Bananas ©Kasiap / Shutterstock.com; Guava ©ruzanna / Shutterstock.com; Mango ©Yasonya / Shutterstock.com; Fig ©ultimathule / Shutterstock.com; on cleared land. Cow ©Eric Isselée / Shutterstock.com; Chicken ©s_oleg / Shutterstock.com; Fish ©Melinda Fawver / Shutterstock.com; Rat ©Oleg Kozlov / Shutterstock.com; Marsh Tit ©xpixel / Shutterstock.com; Saguaro cactus bloom ©Bill Florence / Shutterstock.com; Phlox ©Dainis Derics / Shutterstock.com; Golden rod ©Mike Truchon

Food Courtship and Reproduction Although approximately 70 percent Most bats that live in temperate of the world’s bats eat insects, many regions, such as the United States and tropical species feed exclusively on Canada, mate in the fall just before fruit or nectar. A few are carnivorous, entering hibernation. Ovulation and hunting small vertebrates such as fish, fertilization (through sperm that frogs, mice, and birds. Despite their have been dormant in the female notoriety, there are only three species reproductive tract since the previous of vampire bats, their preferred hosts fall) occur in the spring as females are in two of the species, birds, and emerge from hibernation. Pregnant in the third, mostly forest mammals females then move from hibernating and livestock, and live only in Latin sites to warmer roosts, where they America. With the exception of three form nursery colonies. Birth occurs species of nectar-feeding bats that live approximately a month and a half to along the Mexican border of Arizona two months later. Young bats grow and Texas, all bats in the United rapidly, often learning to fly within States and Canada are insectivorous. three weeks. While they are being reared, males and non-reproductive females often segregate into separate groups called maternity and bachelor colonies. ©Ivan Stanic / Shutterstock.com

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 5 BATS National Wildlife Federation

species. Each of these species of bats supports plants that are crucial to entire ecosystems. Many plants bloom at night, using unique odors and special flower shapes that attract bats. The famous baobab tree of the eastern African savannas is a good example. Only bats can approach from below in a manner likely to contact the flower’s reproductive organs and achieve pollination.

Wild varieties of many of the world’s most economically valuable crop plants also rely on bats for survival. Some of the better-known commercial products include fruits such as bananas, breadfruit, avocados, dates, figs, peaches, and mangoes. Others include cloves, cashews, carob, balsa wood, and even tequila.

We already know that more than 300 plant species in the Old World tropics alone rely on the pollinating and seed dispersal services of bats, and additional bat-plant relationships ©EcoPrint / Shutterstock.com are constantly being discovered. Shelter Why Should I Care about Bats? These plants provide more than 450 Bats can be found roosting in a wide Worldwide, bats play essential roles economically important products, range of shelters, although they in keeping populations of night- valued in the hundreds of millions are best known for living in caves. flying insects in balance. Just one bat of dollars annually. The value of Tropical species occupy an even wider can catch hundreds of insects in an tropical bats in reforestation alone range of roost sites than temperate hour, and large colonies catch tons is enormous. Seeds dropped by bats species. For example, some make of insects nightly, including beetle can account for up to 95 percent of tent-like roosts by biting through the and moth species that cost American forest regrowth on cleared land. midribs of large leaves, and several farmers and foresters billions of Performing this essential role puts species have suction discs on their dollars annually, not to mention these bats among the most important wings and feet that enable them mosquitoes in our backyards. In a seed-dispersing animals of both the to live in the slick-walled cavities single midsummer night, the millions Old and New World tropics. formed by unfurling leaves, such as of free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave Excerpted with permission from “The World those of the banana plant. Others live in central Texas eat scores of tons of of Bats” in America’s Neighborhood Bats by in animal burrows, flowers, termite insects! Merlin Tuttle, Copyright ©1988. Courtesy of the nests, and even in large tropical University of Texas Press. spider webs. Despite the wide variety Throughout the tropics, the seed of roosts used by bats, many species dispersal and pollination activities have adapted to living in roosts of of fruit- and nectar-eating bats are only one or a few types and cannot vital to the survival of rain forests, survive anywhere else. with some bats acting as “keystone’’

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Featured Bats

Macrotus californicus, California leaf-nosed bat Lasiurus borealis, red bat The California Red bats are leaf-nosed bat is North America’s the only bat in the most abundant United States to “tree bats.” They have both large are found east ears and a nose of the Rocky leaf. It is also Mountains from one of the most central Canada acrobatic fliers. to central Florida

This bat is a Bat Conservation © Merlin D. Tuttle, International, www.batcon.org wherever there © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation Interna - © Merlin D. Tuttle, tional, www.batcon.org “gleaner,” which are trees. Red means it is one of the few U.S. bats that swoops down to bats roost in tree foliage, where their rusty red color capture insect prey straight from the ground or plants makes them look like dead leaves. They are perfectly rather than in flight. It typically hunts within a few feet camouflaged as they hang by a single foot with their of the ground, using its superior eyesight and hearing furry tails curled around them. Red bats are solitary, to search for insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, coming together only to mate and to migrate. Unlike beetles, and sphinx moths. California leaf-nosed bats most bats, red bats often give birth to twins and can do not hibernate, nor do they migrate. They can be have litters of up to five young, though three is average. found in desert scrub habitats in the Colorado River In the fall they perform long-distance migrations, valley in southern California, Nevada, and Arizona, and travelling the same routes along the Atlantic seaboard throughout western Mexico. as many small birds do.

Antrozous pallidus, pallid bat Euderma maculatum, spotted bat The pallid bat The spotted has large ears, bat is one of but no nose leaf. America’s It is another most striking gleaner that feeds mammals. Its mostly from the long, silky fur ground, unlike is snow white the majority of beneath and jet North American black above,

© Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, © Merlin D. Tuttle, www.batcon.org bats, which Bat Conservation International, © Merlin D. Tuttle, www.batcon.org with large white capture flying spots on its prey. With its huge ears, it can detect insects simply by shoulders and rump. Its translucent pink ears, nearly listening for footsteps, and it can respond accurately to as long as its body, are the largest of any bat found in a split-second sound from up to 16 feet away. Its most the United States, and it has pink wings to match! common prey include crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, and Initially thought to be extremely rare, the spotted bat is even centipedes and scorpions. Pallid bats roost in rock now known to live from southwestern Canada, south crevices, buildings, and bridges in arid regions. They through the western United States to northern Mexico. are found from Mexico and the southwestern United It is hard to find because it roosts high up in cliff-face States north through Oregon, Washington, and western crevices and emerges to feed late at night. Moths that Canada. are caught high above the ground are its favorite prey.

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 7 BATS National Wildlife Federation Activity Investigating Bat Adaptations 1

Summary: Learning Objectives: Materials: Students investigate adaptations Students will be able to: • Bats Adapt for Food cards (one that increase a bat’s chance of • List several different foods that set of six cards for each group) finding food and surviving in a bats eat. • Bat Food Clues at the end of particular habitat. • Describe anatomical features the lesson, paper for students Grade Level: that lend themselves to to write answers 3-6 particular bat diets. • Analyze bat features to Time: accurately predict their diets. two activity periods

Subject: science

Skills: observation, comparison, hypothesizing

Background

Did you ever stop to think what the world would be like if all animals suddenly tried to eat just one kind of food? What if they all decided to eat just grass? The answer is simple. They soon would run out of grass and starve to death. Because animals eat a wide variety of foods, they compete less, allowing many different species of animals to live in the same habitat and maintain healthy ecosystems. ©Eric Isselée / Shutterstock.com Most of the world’s bats eat insects, and in areas with cold winters, that wide variety of foods. Long-nosed Some bats that catch insects have is all they eat. Many tropical bats bats have noses of varied lengths adaptations for hunting certain eat fruit and nectar, and a few are and widths that match the sizes and kinds of prey or for capturing them carnivores that eat other animals, shapes of the flowers from which in certain places. Free-tailed bats including rats and mice, small birds, they drink nectar. Carollia fruit are like little jet airplanes, using frogs, lizards, or even fish. Only three bats are adapted to feeding almost their long, narrow wings and far- out of more than 1,260 species of bats entirely on small piper fruits, but reaching echolocation (sonar systems) lap blood. some flying foxes are generalists that for chasing moths high in the sky. eat many sizes and kinds of fruit as California leaf-nosed bats are more Each species of bat is adapted for the well as nectar. like helicopters, relying on short, food it eats. Some bats specialize in broad wings to snatch crickets and eating just one or a few kinds of food, other insects from plants or the but others are generalists that eat a

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frequent and unpredictable, are all insect-eaters that seldom specialize on any one insect type. In these places, it is rare to find a bat with highly specialized wings, feet, or ears.

Preparation

Make enough copies of the Bats Adapt for Food cards to distribute one complete set to each group. You may want to laminate the cards for durability.

Procedure

1. Divide your class into groups of six or more students each.

© Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org © Merlin D. Tuttle, 2. Distribute one complete set of Food Cards to each group. Tell ground. They can use their extra- If it has strong jaws and long canine the group to divide the fact cards large eyes and ears to find insects teeth, but has only a very small tail among its members so that every without even using echolocation. membrane, it is a fruit bat that does student can become an expert on Big brown bats have especially not need to chase prey, but is adapted one of the bat eating habits. (Two strong jaws and teeth for chewing for biting into tough-skinned fruit students can share a single card hard beetles. Perimyotis (common to squeeze the juice out. Both insect- in groups having more than six name tri-color bat) have tiny teeth eating and meat-eating bats always students.) for eating gnats and mosquitoes, have long tails or tail membranes, but 3. Ask students to take out a piece and gray myotis have large feet for meat-eaters are the largest and have of paper and number it from one catching mayflies as they hatch from the strongest jaws. to twelve down the left-hand a pond’s surface. side. Ask questions by reading Special adaptations allow bats to the “Bat Food Clues” to the class Most experienced bat scientists find and eat certain kinds of food one at a time. can guess what a bat eats by with little or no competition from 4. Give each group a minute or two looking closely at its adaptations. other species. This is very successful to discuss each given clue, and Long, narrow wings or large tail as long as their unique food type is decide what type of bat it is (for membranes are usually adaptations abundant, but such specialization example, insect-eating, fruit- for catching insects, but if the bat also is risky, because the kinds of prey, eating, etc.). has huge feet and claws, it probably fruit, or flowers a bat eats might eats fish. die out, leaving the bat to starve. 5. After all Bat Food Clues are Animals that eat a variety of foods given and students have written Just having large feet, but not overly can switch types if one disappears, their answers, go back through large, would indicate a bat that but they cannot compete well with the ‘Bat Food Clues’ and lead the catches insects from pond surfaces. specialized animals for any one food. class in discussing the answers. If a bat is large and has strong jaws, Most specialists, such as the huge- Bonus questions after each long canine teeth, and a large tail footed fishing bats, or long-nosed Bat Food Clue can be used to membrane, it is probably a carnivore, nectar bats, live only in tropical areas stimulate additional discussion. adapted both to eating meat and to where climates and food sources are Each group’s expert on each turning quickly while chasing prey. the most predictable. Bats that live in feeding type can be called upon northern climates, where changes are

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 9 BATS National Wildlife Federation

to help lead discussions.

Extensions

• Challenge students to investigate other animals that have food habits similar to bats. For example, some birds snatch insects out of the air, while others pick them from foliage. How do the habits and habitats of these birds compare with those of bats? What about fruit-eating birds? Nectar- eating birds? Fish-eating birds? Are there any other animals that eat blood? Students can present their results in poster* or report

format. ©Hal Brindley / Shutterstock.com • Create a Bat-Friendly Habitat to support bats and other wildlife. wildlife habitats. (www.nwf.org/ For example, bats can fold their Provide food, water, cover and schoolyard) wings around them to protect places to raise wildlife – different • Have students research local bats them from the elements, so bats require different sources in their community and work they’d make a great mascot for of food and places to live. Your with the Cooperative Extension umbrellas or raincoats. Or bats habitat can also support other service and other wildlife rescue could advertise insect repellent wildlife by planning and planting leagues to determine the best since they eat mosquitoes. Or native plants, adding features locations for bats to gather. maybe aircraft manufacturers, like toad adobes and adding Students will then organize since bats use radar. Sports puddling areas for butterflies and a sundown hike to watch for teams? Night vision goggles? bats alike. NWF’s Schoolyard bats with fellow students or • Have students create a Habitats program provides community members. Learn Halloween card with a bat on step-by-step guide to bat and more about bats their behaviors it to mail to their grandparents at http://Bates LIVE.pwnet.org or friends.** Inside, they could or participate in citizen science include a “Did You Know?” through NWF’s Wildlife Watch section listing interesting facts (www.nwf.org/watch) or Project they learned about bats. Noah (www.projectnoah.org) * Products may be submitted to Bat Conservation International, Department of Education. Original and outstanding works may be posted Assessment on-line. ** See examples from Bat Conservation International at www.batcon.org. • Have students write letters to advertisers they select, explaining why they think a bat would make the perfect mascot for their product.* Students could apply their knowledge of bat characteristics and make their own connections to products. ©dean bertoncelj / Shutterstock.com

10 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Activity Teacher Reference Sheet 2

Bat Food Clues

WHO AM I? 1 WHO AM I? 2 Clue: My toes and claws are exceptionally long, and Clue: My legs are extra strong and my kidneys work the sides of my toes and claws are flat. quickly so I can eliminate water as fast as I eat. Bonus Questions: What is the advantage of Bonus Questions: How do fast-working kidneys having long toes and claws? What is the advantage of help a blood-eating bat? What is the advantage of having flattened toes and claws? extra strong legs? Answers: 1. I am a fish-eating bat. Can reach Answers: 2. I am a blood-eating bat. To get rid of into water without submerging body. To glide easily the water, so the bat won’t be too heavy to fly. To walk through water. on the ground while stalking large prey or to jump away quickly if the prey wakes.

WHO AM I? 3 WHO AM I? 4 Clue: I am a large, strong bat with large ears and Clue: I fly fast over quiet water, searching for broad wings. tiny moving objects. My fur is oily. Bonus Questions: Why does a carnivorous bat Bonus Questions: What is the advantage of need big ears? What is the advantage of having broad flying over calm water? What is the advantage of oily wings? fur? Answers: 3. I am a meat-eating bat. To listen to and Answers: 4. I am a fish-eating bat. To easily detect find prey. To better lift heavy prey. tiny fin tips using echolocation. To shed water, keep bat fur dry, and avoid getting cold.

WHO AM I? 5 WHO AM I? 6 Clue: My short, broad wings and my large tail Clue: I have sharp teeth and strong jaws that membrane allow me to dart in and out of branches. can cut or crush big meals. I also have a big tail Bonus Questions: What is the advantage of membrane. being able to dart in and out of branches? What is Bonus Questions: What is the advantage of the advantage of being able to catch insects on the having sharp teeth and strong jaws? What is the ground or in bushes? advantage of a big tail membrane? Answers: 5. I am an insect-eating bat that catches Answers: 6. I am a meat-eating bat. To quickly kill prey on the ground or on plants. To avoid obstacles and cut up large prey and break bones. To maneuver and catch prey. To avoid competing for food with better when chasing prey. other bats that feed in the open.

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 11 BATS National Wildlife Federation

Bat Food Clues

WHO AM I? 7 WHO AM I? 8 Clue: My teeth are small, except for my front teeth, Clue: I have sophisticated echolocation abilities; which are sharp and can cut like a razor. My nose can long, narrow wings; and small ears. detect heat. Bonus Questions: Why do bats have Bonus Questions: Why are razor-sharp teeth echolocation as well as good eyesight? What important? What is the advantage of a heat-sensitive advantages do long, narrow wings have? nose? Answers: 8. I am an insect-eating bat that catches Answers: 7. I am a blood-eating bat. To make quick, prey in the air. To pursue prey on the darkest nights painless cuts. To find areas on prey that are rich in and to roost in deep, dark caves where they are safe blood. from predators. To chase fast-flying insects and travel far.

WHO AM I? 9 WHO AM I? 10 Clue: I can smell my food from a long way off and I Clue: My tongue is long and my wings allow me to don’t have to echolocate. hover. Bonus Questions: Why do many of these bats Bonus Questions: Why does this bat need to not need to echolocate? Why is a good sense of hover in flight? What is the value of a long tongue? smell important? Answers: 10. I am a nectar-eating bat. To visit Answers: 9. I am a fruit-eating bat. They don’t live flowers rapidly without landing, therefore staying safe in caves and echolocation isn’t necessary for finding from predators. To reach deep in to flowers and lap fruit. To smell ripe fruits, because color can’t be seen up nectar. in the dark.

WHO AM I? 11 WHO AM I? 12 Clue: My teeth are flat and my jaws are strong Clue: My nose is long and narrow and my so I can squeeze juice from my food. teeth are very small. Bonus Questions: Why does this bat discard Bonus Questions: What is the advantage of as much pulp as possible? What is the advantage of small teeth? What is the advantage of a long, narrow having flat teeth? nose? Answers: 11. I am a fruit-eating bat. To get the Answers: 12. I am a nectar-eating bat. Nectar most nutritious part of the fruit without carrying extra doesn’t need to be chewed, so heavy teeth aren’t weight. To squeeze out juice without cutting up the needed. To reach deep into long, narrow flowers. pulp.

12 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Activity Bats Adapt for Food Cards Worksheet 1

MEAT-EATING BAT Fish-Eating Bat

Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E Scientific Name: Carnivore (CAR-nih-vore) Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E Scientific Name: Piscivore (PISK-kah-vore) Body: Large size for capturing and carrying off other Body: Larger than average size; long legs and animals. enormous feet; long, sharp, hooked claws; toes flat for Head: Strong jaws for killing prey; large ears help knifing through water; oily fur that sheds water to identify and locate a mouse’s footsteps or the call of a keep dry. frog. Head: Strong jaws for killing and chewing fish; Wings: Broad, with up to three-foot wingspan; large special echolocation ability to detect ripples or fins on tail membrane for maneuvering rapidly. water surface. Teeth: Sharp molars and long canines for chopping Wings: Narrow and long for flying fast over water. flesh and crushing bones. Teeth: Sharp (similar to insectivores), for chopping and grinding fish.

National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org

Blood-Eating Bat Insect-Eating Bat

Scientific Name: Sanguivore (SAN-guee-vore) Body: Strong legs for walking on Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E ground or climbing on prey and for jumping into Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E Scientific Name: Insectivore (in-SECK-tee-vore) flight when full of blood. Body: Many body shapes, all small. Head: Heat-sensitive nose helps find blood vessels Head: Many kinds of faces and ears that aid closest to prey’s skin surface; short pug muzzle makes echolocation and hearing while hunting for insects. biting easier. Wings: Insectivores that catch insects on the ground Wings: Broad and short; strong enough to carry heavy or on plants (gleaning insectivores) have broad, short food loads with a full stomach. wings and large tail membranes for darting in and Teeth: Tiny molars; incisors forming large, razor- out of branches or hovering close to the ground. sharp blades for slicing prey’s skin; grooved tongue Insectivores that chase insects in the air while flying for lapping blood; special saliva keeps blood from (aerial insectivores) have longer, narrower wings and clotting so bat can keep drinking. often have smaller ears for streamlining; some use their tail membrane to help catch prey. Special: Kidneys allow bat to urinate as fast as it eats to lighten the load before flying home Teeth: Sharp, for grinding and chopping tough insect bodies.

National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 13 BATS National Wildlife Federation Activity Bats Adapt for Food Cards Worksheet 1

Fruit-Eating Bat Nectar-Eating Bat

Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E Scientific Name:Frugivore (FROO-gee-vore) Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E Scientific Name: Nectarivore (NEC-ta-ree-vore) Body: Often large with bright colors; most have no Body: Small body tail and little or no tail membrane. Head: Long, slender snout fits perfectly into flowers; Head: Medium to short snouts; keen nose for smelling long, delicate jaw; grooved lower lip and rough, scaly ripe fruit; strong jaws for biting fruit; large eyes with tongue to catch nectar; excellent vision; and sense of excellent vision; many don’t echolocate. smell. Wings: Wide and short for carrying heavy fruits; Wings: Short and wide with long wingtips for small tail membrane. hovering above flowers. Teeth: Wide, flat grinding teeth and strong jaws for Teeth: Small; not used much for chewing due to crushing fruit-separates juice and spits out pulp; liquid diet. some have grooved teeth to more easily collect juice.

National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org

Did you know…

• Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats to pollinate giant cacti, including the organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona. • Agricultural plants from bananas to cashews, dates,

andRange r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal. Range r Rick’s Wildlife S afa r i GA M E • More than half of American bats species are considered endangered due to disturbance of roosting

bats in caves, loss of habitat including forested areas, ©beilzar / Shutterstock.com and inappropriate use of pesticides. • Mexican free-tailed bats can fly 10,000 feet high. • All bats living in the United States and Canada eat insects, except 3 species of nectar-feeding bats living • Townsend’s-big eared bats can pluck insects from along the Texas-Arizona border. foliage. • Bats consume large quantities of “bugs” such as • Hibernating little brown bats can stop breathing for mosquitoes, and are a natural form of insect control. almost an hour during hibernation to reduce their energy needs. • Bats are the only flying mammals and comprise the second largest order of mammals in the world • Fishing bats have an echolocation system so sophisticated they can detect a minnow’s fin as fine as a • A bat’s grasp is strong enough to hold its entire body weight while its body hangs upside down. humanNational hair. Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org National Wildlife Federation • www.nwf.org

14 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Activity Bats: Maligned or Malicious? 3

Summary: Skills: Materials: Students explore their views of a analysis, application, classification, • Copies of “Threatened: threatened bat and present their comparison, description, The Indiana Bat” readings findings. evaluation, research, synthesis (whichever one is more appropriate for your students’ Grade Levels: Learning Objectives: reading level). Each student will 3-8; K-2 Students will be able to: need one reading. Time: • Describe several views people • Craft materials (optional) hold about bats. Two or more class periods, • Props (optional) depending on the presentations. • Identify misconceptions about a threatened species. Subjects: • Reflect on changes in their science, reading, presentation, attitudes about wildlife. social studies • Share natural history and conservation knowledge about bats.

Background Beneficial Bats America. Virtually all U.S. bats are insect-eaters (there are a few bats Many of us would much rather see Bats often suffer from negative, in the Southwest that live on nectar moose, loons, and rabbits on a jaunt Halloween-like associations. Many and a few species eat fish). Do bats in the woods than snakes, spiders, people think of Dracula, blood- carry disease? Like all animals, bats and bats. Because of the way these sucking fangs, disease, or bats tangled can carry diseases. Yet public-health animals have been portrayed in in the hair. Are these perceptions worries about bats are exaggerated. myths, folklore, books, and movies, fair? Do bats drink blood? Only three The probability of catching a disease many of us are biased towards cute, out of the more than 1,260 species of from a bat is far less than the risk of furry animals, even though all bats are actually “vampire bats,” and being struck by lightning. For anyone species play important roles in their these species all live only in Latin who simply leaves bats alone, and ecosystems. Although some of our never attempts to handle them, they responses to certain wildlife help are invaluable allies that need not be protect us from danger, logic does feared. However, as with other wild not always guide our beliefs and animals, those that can be caught are behaviors. Furthermore, we tend to most likely to be sick, and because overlook the benefits some species these may bite in self-defense, and offer humans and other wildlife. can transmit potentially dangerous For example, spiders and bats help diseases, they never should be control nuisance insects and provide handled. food for other animals. Many snakes control some rodent populations. Most of our fears about wildlife are Many of our beliefs about animals are generated from some level of primal not based on scientific facts. fear based simply on the unknown. Bats are small, mysterious creatures of the night that spend time in caves and other dark places. Interestingly, ©Serg Zastavkin / Shutterstock.com

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 15 BATS National Wildlife Federation

level most appropriate for your students.) Another option is to have students conduct the research themselves. Mention that Indiana bats are threatened species in the United States. There are also many other species of bats throughout North America. 5. Give students time to read about bats. 6. If possible, head outside to evaluate your school grounds or

©Styve Reineck / Shutterstock.com a local area as habitat for bats. Is there a forest nearby? Are there any in the tropics, where many of the bats Procedure caves or streamside trees where bats are much larger and more easily seen could roost and feed? Are there trees 1. Tell your students that they will in their habitats, they are not feared. with peeling bark for bats to hide be learning about bats. For fun, under? Due to killing stemming from ask them to practice making carelessness, fear of bats, and a special sound made by a bat 7. Back in the classroom, divide the continued habitat loss, bat called the “body buzz.’’ The body class into small groups of two populations have suffered. Bats buzz is a low sound bats make to three students. Explain that reproduce slowly, typically rearing when they are resting and seem each group will be responsible only one young per year, making contented before they go to sleep. for designing and sharing a population recovery a slow process. The bat’s whole body vibrates. presentation about bats. Instead of spreading myths, we 2. What do your students know 8. Give students the following should consider bats’ real roles in about bats, important animals guidelines for their presentations. ecosystems. Bats are important to the throughout North America? The presentations might be in natural world. Feeding at night, they Instruct students to create a the form of a newscast (perhaps catch billions of insects. Nature’s bug- concept map for bats. A concept interviewing a biologist), skit, zappers are wonderfully efficient, map is a diagram representing radio show, documentary, song, catching as many as 600 mosquitoes thoughts and ideas associated poster, mural, diorama, or other an hour. Bats also eat a number of with a certain subject, in this medium. The final presentation crop pests, saving farmers between case a bat. Encourage students to should last roughly five minutes. 3 and 53 billion dollars per year by record their own ideas and then In addition to being fun and reducing crop damage and the need share with their group; there are creative, the presentations for harmful pesticides. Many tropical no right or wrong answers. should also convey key, accurate bats feed on fruit or nectar and in information about bats. One 3. Review the concept maps the process pollinate plants and important role of the presentation as a class and discuss any disperse seeds, helping to regenerate is to educate people about myths commonalities. How are bats the forest. Any number of familiar they may have heard about bats. generally perceived by the class? In plants depend on bats, including For example, are bats really blood a positive light? A negative light? figs, bananas, avocados, cloves, and suckers? What kinds of benefits Why? cashews. do bats provide to people and 4. Distribute copies of “Threatened: ecosystems? The Indiana Bat” to each student. 9. Let students know they will be (Note: two versions are provided; evaluated on their presentations. pick the version with the reading As a class, develop a list of criteria

16 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS

for judging the presentations. class. After each presentation, For younger students, introduce the Record the ideas on the board. review the criteria listed on the book Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon. Encourage students to think board as a class and evaluate the This delightful story portrays bats in about what they believe makes a presentation. Remind students a positive light, following the antics good presentation. For example: of the difference between of the young bat Stellaluna as she Did the presentation demonstrate constructive and destructive spends time with a family of birds how bats really behave? Did it criticism. Encourage students to and discovers her true identity. show us why bats are important? begin with positive comments Were the facts correct? Was the and add suggestions for Modifications for (Grades 5-8) information clearly presented? improvement. Older students can research different Was the presentation interesting? 12. To conclude, have students species of bats on their own, instead Creative? Did it change the way develop a second concept map of relying on the readings provided. classmates think about bats? for bats. Then have students They could conduct comparisons 10. Give students time to work in compare their pre- and post- among different kinds of bats, their their groups to prepare their concept maps to reflect on their diets, habitat requirements, and what presentations. Have additional new understanding of these plants they may pollinate. research materials available, animals. Discuss some of their particularly on bat pollination if results. Extensions possible. Also, consider having props available, or put students • Have students deliver their in charge of finding what they Modifications for presentations for other audiences. need for their presentations. If Younger Students For example, invite another time allows, this can develop into (Grades K-2) class, or parents. Or share the a more involved project taking presentations with a parent or several class periods. teacher association. 11. Presentation time! Invite • Do bats live in your region? If student groups to deliver their so, which ones? Build (or order) presentations to the rest of the bat boxes to make a Schoolyard Habitats® site for bats. Bats are declining in part due to a loss of roosting sites. Providing a place for bats to roost and raise their young can be an exciting project to benefit bats, and a great lead- in to the Schoolyard Habitats project. For details, and more information about bats and bat research projects, consult Bat Conservation International’s (BCI) website at www.batcon. org. • What other animals suffer from human misconceptions? Investigate and find out. One example is raptors, such as eagles and hawks. Although they are protected by law, magnificent animals such as eagles were

©BMCL / Shutterstock.com once shot as pests and for sport.

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 17 BATS National Wildlife Federation

with the letters ‘b’ to describe bats. Which of the ‘b’ adjectives accurately describe the bat? Do people ever use some of the other adjectives to describe the animals? Which ones? Why? For example, are bats blind and bold or beautiful and beneficial? • Pre- and post-concept maps described in the lesson offer a great assessment tool. ©Dr. Morley Read / Shutterstock.com ©Dr.

Compare the views that various behaviors and characteristics. cultures, including Native American nations, have toward Assessment eagles and other wildlife species. Which wildlife species do they like • Compare the perceptions and dislike? Why? various cultures have regarding • Examined up close, bats have bats today and historically. beautifully complicated faces and Students might divide into bodies. As a class project, feature groups (perhaps by region of a bat beauty contest. Students the world or era) to investigate can find pictures of bats and how these bats are portrayed in create detailed drawings of their myths, stories, art, phrases, and features. * folk tales. Consider a trip to an art or natural history museum • Think of common phrases that to search for information on refer to bats. For example, “blind bats. As follow-up, students can as a bat’’ and “going batty.” investigate whether the portrayal Can you think of others? Have is fair given the animal’s true students investigate the origin behavior. and meaning of these phrases, as well as whether they are fair • For young students, encourage statements based on bats’ true them to list as many adjectives as they can think of that begin

18 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Activity Indiana Bat Reading 1

More than 1,260 different kinds (i.e., species) of bats in the world. ©Adam Mann, Environmental Solutions and Innovations / www.fws.gov

Is a bat a mouse with wings? No, can’t hear) that bounce off other bats are not rodents. Instead, bats objects and return to their ears. These belong to their own special group sounds help them to fly safely and of mammals, Chiroptera. There are locate their prey. more than 1,260 different kinds (i.e., species) of bats in the world. Forty- Many people don’t like bats. People seven different species live in the think bats can get tangled in their United States. hair or spread disease. In fact, bats can see and are very good at finding Some bats eat nectar, fruit, or even their way around in the dark. A fish, but almost all of the bats in the bat can “see” something as fine as a United States eat insects. In fact, they human hair using echolocation. The eat lots and lots of insects. One bat chance of a bat giving someone a can eat more than 600 flying insects disease is less than the chance of being such as mosquitoes in one hour! They struck by lightning. In fact, bats are find their food by “echolocation.’’ very useful to people. They eat insects They make sounds (which humans

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 19 BATS National Wildlife Federation

that might damage farmers’ plants around, they will use too much we’re protecting habitat for bats and and help pollinate our crops. energy and not have enough to other animals. Since 2006 more than survive the winter. Other times, 5.7 million bats have been killed At least six bat species in the United people build cave gates that lock the by White-nose Syndrome, a new States are endangered. Many bats bats out of their winter homes. Some disease of bats which may cause the are disappearing because people gates trap air in the caves and make extinction of some kinds that were misunderstand them or try to get it too hot for the bats. Humans are once common. For regular updates rid of them, and they are losing also changing forests and causing on this fast spreading disease, visit their habitat. Bats suffer because we problems for Indiana bats in their www.batcon.org. disturb the caves and forests they summer habitat. Bats like to feed and need. The Indiana Bat is one species roost in trees near waterways. But in What do you think about saving in trouble. This bat lives in parts of some areas, these important trees are bats? Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, cleared by logging, driving away the and New York, as well as states bats. In other places, dams have been farther south and west. In winter, constructed, removing the trees near Indiana bats hibernate in caves with the waterways that bats prefer. a temperature of 37-43° F. The caves were once filled with bats, but But there is hope! In many places, now many of the bats are gone. For people have built bat-friendly gates. example, one cave in Kentucky had For example, in Tennessee, people at least 100,000 bats in the 1960s, but built a special gate that weighs 23 only 250 by 1987. tons. The gate lets bats into their natural habitat but keeps people out Why are bats disappearing? Some of this important place for bats. people like to explore caves, which may disturb bats while they are Many other animals also like to live hibernating. If bats wake up from and feed in forests next to streams, so hibernation and have to move if we protect trees next to waterways, © © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org © Merlin D. Tuttle,

20 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Activity Indiana Bat Reading 2

Bats look like mice with wings, but to flying at night, bats can navigate they are not rodents. In fact, they in total darkness across a room belong to their own group within the crisscrossed with strings. They do it class of mammals, and this group is by sending out sounds that bounce among mammals’ most successful. off of objects and return to the bats’ Some bat species are Of the approximately 5,000 species of ears, which read them like radar. One mammals, nearly a fifth—over 1,260 myth, that bats generally carry the pollinators of species—are bats. disease rabies, is also false. Only one- half of one percent (0.5%) of healthy- A few bats feed on nectar or fruit, looking bats examined in one U.S. useful plants, but most feed on insects. They have study was found to be rabid. large appetites. A single insect-eating eating nectar bat, flying through the night sky in On the other hand, bats are useful pursuit of prey, may eat more than to people. Some bat species are from blossoms and 600 flying insects in one hour. A bat pollinators of useful plants, eating that lives for 30 years may consume nectar from blossoms and carrying carrying pollen several million insects. pollen from flower to flower. Agaves, plants of the desert Southwest used Bats are high on the list of animals in making fiber ropes and other from flower to flower. that are victims of human myths and products, are bat-pollinated. Bats misunderstandings. Well adapted not only help people by eating huge numbers of insects, but bat studies have been important in the development of low-temperature surgery, vaccines, and navigational aids for the blind.

In recent decades, several U.S. bat species have had population declines. In 1973, the Indiana bat became the first of nine U.S. bat species to appear on the Endangered Species List. The story of the Indiana bat shows the problems faced by many of the 45 bat species in the United States. The Indiana bat is roughly the size of a house sparrow, with gray-brown fur and pink to cinnamon underparts. It eats insects, which females and juveniles snatch from the air over streams and trees. Males look for food at treetop level over dense woods. The species can be found in the Midwest and eastern United States, from the western Ozarks ©Indidana DNR; Scott Johnson / www.fws.gov

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 21 BATS National Wildlife Federation

Indiana Bat Range

of Oklahoma north to southern One of the main reasons Wisconsin, east to Vermont, and that bat numbers are falling south to Florida. is the loss of cave habitat, especially caves used for In winter, the Indiana bat hibernates hibernation. Some caves in limestone caves, especially caves have been made into tourist in which temperatures average 37° attractions. Others have to 43° F with a relative humidity been destroyed by vandals averaging 74 percent. In summer, or disturbed by spelunkers Indiana bats live in hilly countryside, (people who explore caves). along riverbanks, and on low plains. Since 1950, these and other The bats roost under the bark of dead causes have eliminated and © National Forest Service, www.srs.fs.usda.gov and dying trees in these areas. degraded major winter bat colonies of West Virginia, The Indiana bat population has been Indiana, and Illinois. falling since at least the 1960s. For example, in the 1960s, Kentucky had five caves in which more than 150,000 Indiana bats hibernated. By 1988, the total winter population in the five caves was only 49,000. Today, nearly 90 percent of all Indiana bats hibernate in only seven caves. © National Forest Service, www.srs.fs.usda.gov

22 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Activity Build a Bat House! 6

Summary: Materials: (for each house) Students build a bat house for • 1/4 sheet ( 2’ x 4’ ) 1/2’’ CDX their Backyard Wildlife HabitatTM or (outdoor grade) plywood Schoolyard Habitats® Site. No pressure- or chemically- treated wood Grade Level: • One piece 1’ x 2’ (3/4’’ x 1 3/4’’ 2-8 finished) x 8’’ pine (furring strip) Time: • 20 to 30 1 1/4’’ coated deck or 2 hours (plus painting and exterior-grade Phillips screws installation time) • One pint black, water-based ©gualtiero boffi / Shutterstock.com Subject: stain, exterior-grade science, art, math • One pint water-based primer, exterior-grade darker colors for less sun. Use exterior-quality, Skills: water-based stain or latex paint, and choose flat • One quart flat water-based paint rather than gloss or semi-gloss. construction, description, analysis paint or stain, exterior-grade* Learning Objectives: • One tube paintable latex caulk Recommended Tools Students will be able to: • 1’’ x 3’’ x 28’’ board for roof • table saw (for adults only) or handsaw, • Identify reasons for building a • 6 to 10 7/8’’ roofing nails bat house. • caulking gun *Years of research have shown that bat houses • Demonstrate a method for are far more successful at attracting bats if they • variable speed reversing drill building a bat house. are painted or stained. Painting helps maintain the proper internal temperature for bats and • paintbrushes • Identify key criteria for also increases the life span of the bat house. Appropriate color depends upon geographic • Phillips bit for drill successful bat houses. location and amount of sun exposure. Adjust to

• tape measure or yardstick The most important goal is to of wildlife are more fun or rewarding • scissors (optional) preserve America’s most abundant than helping bats. bats in sufficient numbers to maintain • staple gun (optional) nature’s balance. If you live in areas Note: Some teachers opt to buy ready-to-hang bat houses and concentrate the lesson instead on of bat habitats, putting up a bat selecting a good site for mounting it. Superior Background house near your home or school can quality bat houses are available through Bat Conservation International at www.batcon.org . help provide a critical safe haven for bats. Bats make good neighbors; as Why Build a Bat House? Looking for additional or other ways primary predators of night-flying America’s bats are an invaluable to provide better bat habitat? You insects, they play a vital role in natural resource. Yet, due to decades can try these other simple actions to maintaining the balance of nature. of unwarranted human fear and attract bats to your Backyard Wildlife People with occupied bat houses on habitat loss, bats are in alarming Habitat or Schoolyard Habitats site, their properties benefit from having decline. The loss of bats contributes to by providing the insects to eat, water fewer lawn and garden pests, and growing demands for toxic pesticides to drink, and places to hide that bats they enjoy learning about bats and that increasingly threaten our need for their habitat. personal and environmental health. sharing their knowledge with friends and neighbors. Few efforts on behalf • Got an anti-bug zapper in your yard? You might want to think

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 23 BATS National Wildlife Federation

about getting rid of it! Zappers are useless on most biting insects and only kill light-attracted moths, which are good food for bats. • Trees and shrubs, even dead ones left standing, are excellent hideouts for bats and birds. • Bats need water to drink. If you build a mini-pond, you’ll also attract frogs and many other 1/2” water creatures. Find out how to Vent do this on NWF’s website: www. nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/ or at a garden center or library. Suggestions are also available in Water for Wildlife at www. batcon.org Side View Landing Area • Close any holes in your attic to ensure that your neighborhood bats use your outdoor wildlife side. you do to help them? One idea is habitat, and not your house! to build a bat house to provide Procedure additional habitat for them. Preparation 3. Divide your students into small 1. Ask students, What do you groups to make bat houses, or 1. Measure and cut plywood into know about bats? Make a list make one together as a large three pieces for each group: on the board. What would you group. Make sure to use all 26 1/2’’ x 24’’ for the back board, like to know? Make a parallel appropriate safely considerations, 16 1/2’’ x 24’’ for the front top, 5’’ list. Discuss some of the major equipment, and adult supervision x 24’’ for the front bottom. characteristics of bats (from for use of tools. background) with the students, 2. Pre-drill 11 screw holes on the 4. Roughen inside of backboard back board, four on each side and and refer back to their list for later explorations. and landing area by cutting three across the top. horizontal grooves with sharp 3. Pre-drill nine screw-holes on the 2. Explain to students that many object or saw. Space grooves front top board, three on each bats are highly endangered (What about 1/2” apart, cutting 1/32” to side and three across the top. does that mean?) due to habitat 1/16” deep. Ask students, why you destruction and disturbance. If might want to do this? (The bats 4. Pre-drill four screw holes on the you live in an area bats use for need such texture for climbing front bottom board, two on each habitat (check www.enature.com and roosting.) if you need to check), what could 5. Apply two coats of black, water- based stain to interior surfaces. Bat House Color Do not use paint, as it will fill Recommendations Based on Average Daily High Temperatures in July grooves, making them unusable. Less than 85° F = black 6. Measure and cut furring strips 85° to 95° F = dark brown or other dark shade into one 24’’ and two 20 1/4’’ pieces. 95° to 100° F = medium brown or other medium shade 7. Attach furring strips (3/4’’ wide) 100° F or greater = light tan or other light shade to back, caulking first. Start

24 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS

with 24’’ piece at top. Roosting Back chamber will be 3/4’’ wide (front to back). 8. Attach front to furring strips, top piece first (don’t forget to caulk wherever pieces meet along both top and sides). Leave 1/2’’ vent Front Top space between top and bottom front pieces. 9. Caulk around all outside joints to further seal roosting chamber. 10. Attach a 1’’ x 3’’ x 28’’ board to the top as a roof, if Furring Strips desired (optional, but highly Front Bottom 1/2” recommended). Vent

Key Criteria for successful bat houses

• Include vents 6 inches from the bottom of all houses to be used where average July high temperatures are 85º F or above. Front vents are as long as a house is wide; side vents are 6 inches tall by 1/2 inch wide.

HABITAT: Most nursery colonies of bats choose roosts within 1/4 mile of water, preferably a stream, river, or lake. Greatest bat house success has been achieved in areas of diverse habitat (with lots of different species present). Bat houses are most likely to succeed in regions where bats are already attempting to live in ©Michael Wethoff / istockphoto.com ©Michael Wethoff buildings. DESIGN: All bat houses should be at least 2 feet tall and 14 inches or more wide, with a landing area extending below the entrance at least 3 to 6 inches. • Most houses have one to four roosting chambers — the more the better. Roost partitions should be carefully spaced 3/4 to 1 inch apart. • All partitions and landing areas should be roughened. Wood surfaces can be scratched or grooved horizontally, at roughly 3-inch intervals, or covered with durable plastic mesh. Plastic mesh MUST be securely stapled every two inches. (Plastic mesh 1/8” or 1/6”, but no larger than 1/4”, available from companies such as Internet, Inc. at www.industrialnetting.com or 1-800-328-8456). ©Jason Patrick Ross / Shutterstock.com

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 25 BATS National Wildlife Federation

11. Paint or stain exterior three times cool locations, so young stay each of these factors, ask (use primer for first coat). warm and grow fast), students to consider how it 12. Where will you put up your • facing east, west, or contributes to successful bat new bat house? Ask students south (avoiding west in habitat. to identify criteria for good exceptionally hot climates), 13. Install your bat house and placement, based on what they • on a pole or the side of a observe it! What do you know about bats. Consider: building), discover? • permission to put it up, close • about 12-15 feet above Assessment to a pond, stream, or lake ground, where bats feed and drink, • Write a letter to Ranger Rick • in an open area at least 20 Raccoon at the National Wildlife • diverse habitat that supplies a feet away from nearest Federation about your bat house, variety of insects, trees or other obstacles. For explaining what you learned • lots of sunshine to warm about building and planning your the house (at least six hours bat house. Ask any bat-related daily in hot climates, more in questions you have. ©Linda Charlton / iStockphoto.com ©Jeff Kinsey / Shutterstock.com ©Arsgera/ Shutterstock.com

MOUNTING: AVOIDING UNINVITED GUESTS: Bat houses should be mounted on poles or buildings. Wasps can invade bat boxes before bats fully occupy Houses mounted on trees or metal siding are seldom it. Use of 3/4-inch roosting spaces reduces wasp use. used. Wood or stone buildings with good solar If nests accumulate, they should be removed in late exposure are excellent choices, and locations under winter or early spring before either wasps or bats the eaves often have been successful. Mounting return. Open-bottom houses greatly reduce problems two bat houses back to back on poles is ideal. Place with birds, mice, squirrels or parasites, and guano (bat houses 3/4 inch apart and cover both with a galvanized droppings) does not accumulate inside. TIMING: Bat metal roof to protect the center roosting space from houses can be installed at any time of the year, but rain. All bat houses should be mounted at least 12 feet are more likely to be used during their first summer if above ground; 15 to 20 feet is better. installed before the bats return in spring.

PROTECTION FROM PREDATORS: Houses mounted on sides of buildings or on metal poles provide the best protection from predators.

26 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS What you can do to help bats © Janet Tyburec, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org © Janet Tyburec,

You can make a big difference for bat conservation by working on local projects. Visit National The following suggestions can get you started in your community. Wildlife Federation Actions That Everyone Can Take: • Write an article about bats for your local newspaper, especially for International Bat Night (each year on Saturday of the last full weekend at www.nwf.org in August), International Bat Appreciation Week (each year in the second week of April), or Year of the Bat. to learn about all kinds of wildlife and habitat protection. © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, © Merlin D. Tuttle, www.batcon.org

• Learn how to safely remove stray bats from living quarters. This can be done easily by covering the bat with a coffee can when it lands and slipping a piece of cardboard between the wall and the opening. The bat then can be released outside. Do not attempt to handle bats without gloves; they may

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 27 BATS National Wildlife Federation © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org © Merlin D. Tuttle,

bite in self-defense. Share this • Visit sites to view wild bats successful bat house with neighbors and friends. and bats in zoo conservation (www.batcon.org) • Provide bats and rabies facts programs. • Participate LIVE or view pre- to local school, garden centers, • Promote the “look, but do not recorded webinars about bats, public parks and after-school touch” approach of respecting their habitats, how to teach about centers. To obtain information wild animals. bats and much more at BatsLIVE about bats and public health • Host a fundraiser to support (http://batslive.pwnet.org/) issues, visit www.batcon.org and bat research and improving bat • Explore the Year of Bat and click on “Bats and Rabies”. conservation. activities you can do over the year • Teach a unit on habitats and • Contact your local wildlife and beyond (www.batcon.org/ wildlife. Exciting activity guides resource center to assist with bat YOTB) are available both through BCI rehabilitation. • Join “NIGHT” summer reading and NWF. program sponsored the National • Build a Certified Wildlife Libraries. Check out great books Habitat® at school, home or Additional Activity Ideas and read outside. a park, complete with native • Use the zip code finder on eNature.com to identify • Participate in a bat awareness plants, bird feeders, bee- program at your local zoo or attracting flowers, and other what bats are located in your community. aquarium. Find activities in your food, water, shelter, and places area at www.batcon.org/aza to raise young for all your local • Watch for bats and participate wildlife. To find out more, visit in citizen science programs with www.nwf.org/ gardenforwildlife. Project Noah (www.projectnoah. • Organize a wildlife appreciation org) or Wildlife Watch day at your school and educating (www.nwf.org/watch) other students about the • Download activities for families, importance of wildlife and groups and teachers, including habitat. how to build and install a

28 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS Further Resources

More Resources available on Year of Bat Partners websites

• USDA Forest Service • Bureau of Land Management (www.fs.fed.us) (www.blm.gov) • Partners in Resource Education • Lubee Bat Conservancy (www.handsontheland.org) (www.batconservancy.org) • US Fish and Wildlife Service • Virginia Department of (www.fws.gov) Conservation & Recreation • Bat Conservation International (www.dcr.virginia.gov) (www.batcon.org) • UN Year of the Bat • National Environmental (www.yearofthebat.org) Education Foundation • National Park Service (www.neef.org) (www.nps.gov) • EUROBATS Organization for • National Cave and Karst Bat Conservation Resources Institute (www.eurobats.org) (www.fs.fed.us) • National Wildlife Federation • Project Underground (www.nwf.org) (http://karsteducation.org/) • Organization for Bat Conservation (www.batconservation.org) • Ravenswood Media • Prince William County Public Schools (http://batslive.pwnet.org/) • Midwest Bat Working Group (http://mwbwg.org/) • Western Bat Working Group (www.wbwg.org)

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 29 BATS National Wildlife Federation ©cherrycreek / BigStockPhoto.com ©South12th / BigStockPhoto.com

30 Night Friends www.nwf.org BATS ©Zolran / Shutterstock.com ©Eric Isselée / Shutterstock.com ©Canoneer / Shutterstock.com ©Kushal Bose / Shutterstock.com ©Ivan Kuzmin / Shutterstock.com ©Ivan Kuzmin / Shutterstock.com

Bats of the Americas Online Activity Guide 31 National Wildlife Federation 11100 Wildlife Center Drive Reston, VA 20190-5362

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