Thanks to paper.li, we are pleased to announce the launch of The SmileyBat! Daily – an online newspaper with links, pics, and news about our little Chiroptera friends from the Twitterverse.

Follow @SmileyBat or subscribe via RSS at http://paper.li/SmileyBat/1310068161

Woo hoo! We love cool stuff, don’t you?

According to an article in the AZ Star, 70 bats were killed and even more maimed with a BB gun.

Here is a quote from the article, which describes the trauma these bats suffered:

Necropsies showed damage to the 15 bats ranged from mild to severe, with seven fractured wings, one spinal fracture, one leg fracture, two “through-and-through” entrance and exit wounds on opposite sides of the body and four cases of generalized wing trauma.

A reward of $750 has been offered for information leading to an arrest in the case.

Call 1-800-352-0700, anonymously if need be, and reference OGT# 11-000017

Please, please contact them if you have any information. Thank you.

If you live in the Denver area of Colorado, please support this cause!

http://www.indigorainbellydance.com/batindex.html

Here is information directly from their website:

Show: Saturday, May 14th, 6:00p – 9:00p
The Bug Theatre
3654 Navajo Street, Denver, CO
Tickets are $15 until May 13th and $18 at the door.

Did you know bats save U.S. agriculture $3.7 to $53 billion a year?

Discovery News posted a new article called Billion Dollar Bats in Danger: http://news.discovery.com/animals/billion-dollar-bats-110404.html#mkcpgn=twnws1 (to share use http://ow.ly/4sRkY)

The statistics are from an article in Science Magazine: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6025/41

Sadly, the threat of White Nose Syndrome still looms – it has killed more than 1 million bats, and counting. It was first documented in New York, and has since spread further west. To find out more, please visit Bat Conservation International (and please consider donating!).

Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ spring training home has some little visitors. Well, thousands of them! Although they are being excluded (primarily because of their unwanted guano) it seems they are doing so in as nice of a way as they can. They are using netting, “one way doors”, and have built a large bat house for them to reside in.

My main concern with the move is in regards to any pups that may be present, especially with the one-way doors which exclude the bats after they leave for feeding. Considering they say the process is expected to take 1-2 weeks, that could be a deadly timeframe. Of course, I don’t know anything about their gestation cycle or season but hopefully that’s not an issue.

And I hate that they keep referring to them as pests! Ugh!

But they promise none of the bats will be hurt, so the Rays get a thumbs up. Unlike the Spurs.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/tampa-wfts-22220379/rays-spring-training-home-has-bats-in-the-rafters-24144870

A special thanks to Jeff Moriarty for bringing these adorable bat pics to my attention from CuteOverload.com!

http://cuteoverload.com/2010/01/26/your-thought-for-today-2/ <-- A cute little puffball!

http://cuteoverload.com/2009/04/29/rainforest-fluffballs/ <– A bunch of rainforest cuties! (They look like pipstrelles to me.)

Enjoy!

wllw

Robo-Bat Skeleton, Courtesy of Dr. Stefen Seelecke, North Carolina State University

So in what may be the coolest invention of all time, the folks at North Carolina State University have come up with a Robo-Bat.

“We’re using an alloy that responds to the heat from an electric current. That heat actuates micro-scale wires the size of a human hair, making them contract like ‘metal muscles.’ During the contraction, the powerful muscle wires also change their electric resistance, which can be easily measured, thus providing simultaneous action and sensory input. This dual functionality will help cut down on the robo-bat’s weight, and allow the robot to respond quickly to changing conditions – such as a gust of wind – as perfectly as a real bat.” – Dr. Stefen Seelecke.

Super sweet! Now if they could only make a robot to clean my house I’d be doubly happy!

wllw

For anyone that’s interested, here is the video for my Ignite Phoenix 5 presentation. The official title is “Bats: Not the Winged Spawn of Satan” or “Bats Are Good Because They Make Poop” (my daughter’s suggestion!)

It may not win any awards, but here is my very first presentation, for what it’s worth. wllw

For anyone interested in the presentation slides, they can be downloaded here.

Please note that some of the photos I received special permission to use for the presentation (these are the photos from “balgalbats” on Flickr. You must contact her if you would like to use this slideshow.) All other photos are either in the public domain or are licensed via Creative Commons (or at least were at the time of the presentation.) This slideshow is for educational purposes only. Permission must be obtained for any other usage. (Chances are it would be fine but please ask so I can make sure I have the right permissions.)

Ignite Phoenix was a blast! The audience was more than generous in their reactions and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to cut my teeth on the whole public speaking thing.

For anyone who doesn’t know, it was the selection of my presentation at Ignite Phoenix that inspired me to create this website. wllw

I met a lot of really fun and interesting people there and some even said they might be interested in learning more about bats or even “adopting” a bat” through Bat Conservation International. Yay!

A big thanks needs to go out to Sharon at AZGFD who was kind enough to give me some extra posters to distribute (which are also available for free to Arizona residents.) Two eager and lucky audience members cornered me for them immediately and seemed very pleased to have them. wllw

A copy of the poster is also available for download from their website.

I will provide links to pics and videos as well as provide a copy of my slideshow as soon as everything posts, which should be in about a week or so.

Kudos to Jeff Moriarty and his awesome team of misfit geniuses for putting together such a great event and also to Brian Carson, who helped me fine tune my slides!

Do I have a career in public speaking ahead of me?
Ehhh, probably not. But because I love bats so much I would willingly do it again.

wllw

Here is the e-mail I received from the Spurs. I know it was generic because I received the exact same e-mail in response to two separate comments I made…

from [private]
to [private]
date Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:23 PM
subject RE: Spurs.com Contact Us
mailed-by attcenter.com

Shep McAllister
Spurs.com

What we have here is a further perpetration that all bats have rabies. All mammals have the potential to carry rabies and less than 1% of bats do.

“Fewer than 40 people in the United States are known to have contracted rabies from bats during the past 40 years. Far more people are killed by dog attacks, bee stings, power mowers, or lightning than rabies from bats” (US Fish and Wildlife Services).

Yes, you read that right – power mowers, bees, lightning and dogs are all more dangerous than bats.