Archive for the ‘Bats’ Category

May
09

Wildlife Heroes is an awesome book, and we have the author coming to the Zoo!

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,Bats,Birds,Borneo,Bumblebees,Carnivores,Central America,Chimpanzee,community-based conservation,Conservation,Cotton-top Tamarin,Elephant,Endangered Species,Field Research,Going Green,Gorilla,Okapi,orangutan,Painted Dog,Panama,Rhino,Sea Turtles,South America,What You Can Do

Join us on May 19th and 20th for Wildlife Heroes weekend at the Houston Zoo.  On May 20th we welcome Jeff Flocken, co-author of Wildlife Heroes: 40 Leading Conservationists and the Animals they are Committed to Saving for a book-signing and presentations by zoo staff on the focus species of the book. Wildlife Heroes will be available for sale at the zoo on May 20th, quantities are limited!  Books are also available for  pre-order on the Houston Zoo website at: http://www.houstonzoo.org/wildlife-heroes/for a dicounted price until May 17th.

My first heroes were animal people.  When I went to zoos my heroes were the zoo keepers and when I watched animal documentaries the researchers were my heroes.  We all need amazing people to inspire us and that is why the new book Wildlife Heroes is so wonderful. 

The book includes 40 people overcoming impossible odds to save endangered species all over the world.  If you are looking for real heroes for your children to look up to look now further! 

The unique stories in this book of local communities becoming involved in anti-poaching, education and research efforts for wildlife in their own back yard are immeasurably inspiring!  In one story a young boy, Thia grew up in Northern Vietnam watching his village hunt the very species he fights to save today.  His passion to help a unique species called the pangolin will warm your heart!
 
I have had the honor of meeting many of the heroes in this book (including the authors) over the years and they inspire me to move forward in my own wildlife conservation work.  These are real people making a real difference! 

This book introduces readers to pollinator and amphibian decline and other environment issues that continue to threaten our world.  But it also offers great messages of hope.  In the last chapter Jack Hannah suggests ways the reader can help, and the good news is that by purchasing the Wildlife Heroes book you are already helping- 100 % of the proceeds go to the projects featured in the book.  A win for everyone!

Hope to see you at the Houston Zoo for our Wildlife Heroes weekend May 19th and 20th!

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Mar
22

The Pollinator: A Superhero of Superheroes

Posted by in Animal Origins & Fun Facts,Bats,Birds,Bumblebees,Conservation,Endangered Species,Featured,Going Green

Dressed in a multitude of colors, this superhero fights crime like no other – the potential of declining food production due to lack of pollination. They leap (flitter above actually) tall buildings, see through walls (sniff through backyard fences), and have super strength (you try flying around all day).

He/She is The Pollinator! Really, right there in the photo below. Yes that green cocoony thing with the three gold dots and as you can see he or she is amassing his or her forces of pollinator buddies in my backyard. 33 of them to be exact as of today.

Monarch Butterfly chrysalids hanging out on a fence post after a feast of Milkweed plants (Asclepia species)

Pollination occurs when pollen is moved within flowers or carried from flower to flower by pollinating animals such as birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles, or other animals, or by the wind. In our case above, a Monarch Butterfly. The transfer of pollen in and between flowers of the same species leads to fertilization, and successful seed and fruit production for plants.  Pollination ensures that a plant will produce full-bodied fruit and a full set of viable seeds.

Here is why it is important according to our friends at the Pollinator Partnership:

  • Worldwide, roughly 1,000 plants grown for food, beverages, fibers, spices, and medicines need to be pollinated by animals in order to produce the goods on which we depend.
  • Foods and beverages produced with the help of pollinators include: apples, blueberries, chocolate, coffee, melons, peaches, potatoes, pumpkins, vanilla, almonds, and tequila.
  • In the United States, pollination by honey bees, native bees, and other insects produces $40 billion worth of products annually.

    Monarch Buttrefly Caterpillar finishing breakfast before metamorphosis into chrysalid

It is simple to help pollinators – just plant a small garden – apartment dwellers can also place pollinator plants in pots out on balconies and porches – and before you know it (and I am not sure exactly how they find me, but they do) butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and more will be at your door wearing their little Superhero capes and saving the world through pollination. Get the BEE SMART Pollinator APP for planting tips here.

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Dec
06

The Houston Zoo is educating Painted Dog Conservation about bats

Posted by in Africa,Bats,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen with bat that lives in the roof of the guest housing at Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen Gieslman is a Houston Zoo conservation board member.  She has been studying bats for quite some time and volunteered to accompany Conservation Programs Manager, Rachel Rommel to Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe to educate staff there about bats.  Painted Dog Conservation’s (PDC) education program for the local communities focuses on the eco-system.  PDC was very eager to have Rachel  and Cullen contribute an amphibian and bat component to this program.   Enjoy Cullen’s bat update from PDC in Zimbabwe.

Cullen weighing bat

This is a brief bat update and photos that Rachel took of me and the bats living in our house. It’s really the only batting we have done besides wandering around with bat detectors. We’ll try to get more photos with the camp kids when we show them the bats next week. The housing for visiting scientists at Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe shelters a large colony of bats that we hear squeaking and moving about day and night. To find out what species we are cohabitating with, we devised a plan to capture a few.

Rachel, Cullen and Greg Mist-netting for bats

We taped a very short mist net (2.6 meters long and about 2.6 meters high) to some poles and, once it got dark, we observed the direction the bats were taking as they flew out of their roost. We quickly positioned the net right in their path and, after intercepting four, swung the net out of their way because we would only need a few to confirm species. I gingerly extracted each from the net and placed it in its own cloth holding bag. I could tell from the shape of the face and ears and presence of a free tail extending beyond the tail membrane more than one-third of its length that we had captured a species of free-tailed bat in the family Molossidae.

Cullen measuring bat

I then consulted Bats of Southern and Central Africa to determine the species based first on forearm measurement and then on description. Our cohabitants turn out to be Mops midas, or Midas free-tailed bat, a large species (forearm = 61 mm, mass = 45 g) associated with hot, low-lying savanna and woodlands in southern Africa. We captured two lactating females, one pregnant female, and one scrotal male suggesting that our house is being used as a maternity roost and that the noise we hear during the night are mothers coming back to feed their young.

Adults of this species eat insects, mainly beetles, which are very abundant in the area. After measuring and weighing our captives, we released them to go about their nightly forays.

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May
31

A Trip to the Largest Colony of Bats in the World at Bracken Cave

Posted by in Bats,Conservation,Texas

Did you know that Texas has the largest bat colony in the world?  Bracken cave, just outside of San Antonio, is home to 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from March until October.  Yet another thing for Texans to be proud of! 

Mexican free-tailed bat

We had the opportunity to watch the bats emerge this week.  We attended an urban wildlife conference that offered a trip with the folks from Bat Conservation International (BCI) to Bracken cave to see the bats.  The cave is not open to the general public, so we felt very privileged. 

We pulled up to the site at around 6:00pm.  As we exited the bus, although we were a distance from the cave, the distinct smell of 20 million bats filled the air.  We walked up to the mouth of the cave that is surrounded in 697 acres of Texas hill country and sat for a while to listen to the BCI interpreter talk about the bats and the history of the cave. 

If it wasn’t for BCI Bracken would have been surrounded by subdivisions by now.  And, BCI is protecting more than just the bats, they are conserving all the wildlife in the area, restoring native vegetation and removing invasive species.

At around 7:30pm we sat quietly by the opening to the cave and eagerly awaited the bat emergence.  At 8:20pm the first bats began to spiral out of the cave.  It wasn’t long before they peppered the sky.  Two birds of prey swooped down and snatched a few of the bats out of mid air.  When you cupped you hands behind you ears the millions of wings sounded like rushing water.  Bats were everywhere!   I have never seen or felt anything like it!  Just to give you an idea of the mass quantity of bats, it takes four hours for all the bats to stream out of the cave in the evenings.  

Thank you BCI for all of your dedicated work and protection of this natural wonder of the world!

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