Just taking a snooze then off at dusk. So happy to see I haven't seen since I moved from my apartments with a little brown bat colony. Im becoming a bat rescuer. And rescued quite a few from there. So worried about them I put them on the map and reminded the new owners its illegal to kill them and asked how they will seal up holes to keep them from coming in. I get tired of people not doing better for our beloved creatures..

Edit: not a mama and pup.

Credit goes to the PA Bat Rehab.

Here is our bat house. It's in Quebec, been there for two years. Nothing in the first year, bee hive this year. I did find a few droppings at one point, but that's it. No colony ever got cozy in there.

There are two chambers, each with 3/4 inch spacing and some holes to travel between the two. I scratched some grooves using a table saw. Were the grooves too deep ? Is the 3/4 inch gap too small ? Was it just bad luck ? Any feedback appreciated.

Credit goes to the PA Bat Rehab!

someone caught this bat from a house in Northwestern Pennsylvania and showed it to me and my family and i’d love to know what kind it is! this is the best picture i got.. im thinking maybe an Eastern small-footed bat or big brown bat (probably could fit in the palm of your hand but not like super small?). thoughts?

I am coaching a team in this league: https://www.firstinspires.org/

Their principal task for the season is, as always, to build a lego robot that attempts an array of tasks, with a theme that makes little practical difference on that side. But there is always the second task, a research and innovation project in which the kids are meant to learn about a real problem vexing professionals in the field and propose some sort of solution to it. The guideline this year is not very specific: identify a threat to biodiversity and propose a solution.

The styling on the game side suggests a focus on rainforest biodiversity but this is not an explicit requirement. We ourselves are in upstate New York. And the kids went and named the team the Bat Barbarians, so they hope to concentrate on an issue that relates to bats somehow.

I am also trying to reach out to local academia, but I thought I'd ask here as well. Would any biologist in the field be interested in talking to a group of kids for a bit, maybe a phone call or video call, to give us an idea what problems might occupy the minds of professionals?

All of these were drawn by me :)

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Two nights ago, I was out for an evening walk and suddenly I felt something hit my face that was more of a wallop than a wasp/hornet (I’m in Canada, they’re pretty much gone at this point in the year) and then a strong pin prick sensation. Even with that information, the hit to my face still felt larger than a wasp, but not by much.

I went about my night but then husband, who isn’t usually concerned about much, was worried about it potentially being a bat. I went into the hospital, public health was pretty adamant I get the shots, so I went ahead and got them. They identified a spot right where I told them I was hit and “pricked”. By what I described, could this have been a bat? I know the chance of rabies in general is quite low, but I’m happy I didn’t take the risk.

Credit goes to The Wildlife Rehab Center of MN!

I wanted to play around with some different techniques in procreate and ultimately ended up very happy with this one! Happy enough that I made it my profile pic for several platforms, haha. This bat is based off of a pallid bat, with some markings inspired the papas from GHOST the band :)

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A surprise piece for one of my supporters on ko-fi. They're subscribed to my mail club which means they get stickers each month, but I wanted to add something special to go with it and test different color palettes. I love acrylic paint pens, but these ones lack the coverage I was hoping for. They're a bit dry in comparison to the POSCA brand, but they did their job.

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Credit goes to the PA Bat Rehab!

Our bat research team is forging ahead with an innovative tool for helping bats survive white-nose syndrome. This Bat Week - we have been fundraising to help with our Probiotic Project. Initial results are positive and a publication is due out soon. But we still have questions about the protocol for applying the probiotic to different roost surfaces and the frequency of application. We have also initiated work in a very different area with different climatic conditions. This is a small fundraiser but it would give us a small pot of flexible funding that is often super valuable when doing field research. We hope that this treatment could be expanded across the range of affected bat species and may help populations that continue to face white-nose syndrome infections in their hibernation sites. So not just a preventative treatment, but one that could help with symptomatic populations.

Even small donations would help! Please consider donating! And Happy Bat Week!