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Bats on the Web | |
For many visitors to Carey's Cave and in fact any Caves, if you were to ask them to name something they associate with Caves, more often than not people would say Bats. Of course some people get confused and when they think of Bats they imagine Flying Foxes or Fruit Bats flying through the Caves.
The typical types of Bats to be seen in Carey's Cave include the Bentwing and Eastern Horseshoe, which among other things, are considerably smaller than your typical Fruit Bat.
Rather than try and explain about Bats, references are made to various other websites around the world which will help to better explain this fascinating mammal.
Since a lot of school children look at this website I believe that a really good starting point for them can be found at Bats4Kids.
Their site explains a variety of concepts in a manner that is both well researched and entertaining. Issues such as diet, habitat, navigation and appearance are all covered at this website. The games section is definitely worth a look. Many games on educational websites are simple word games. At Bats4Kids there is a large choice.
Make a point of checking out BatFlight where you have to manoeuvre a bat in flight, avoiding being eaten by owls but snatching insects to eat as you make your way back to your cave.
Another site that provides a lot of good technical information is that run by the British Bat Conservation Trust.
There is a wealth of information on bats at this site with the emphasis, as the name suggests, on Bat Conservation.
Of particular note is the section on echo location which includes a selection of sound files from various types of Bats.
Of course, you ordinarily can't hear the sounds bats use to navigate by, but if you use a Bat Detector you can make those sounds audible to the human ear.
There are lots of Bat Detector designs around - one of the simplest can be found at the Bat Detector page.
Finally, it might be an idea to find out a bit about "Lyssavirus". There has been much in the news about this virus and although the bats at Carey's do not carry it, it is nevertheless another aspect of Bats that is of interest.
To find out more about the "Lyssavirus", have a look at the CSIRO Lyssavirus Fact Sheet
Hopefully you have discovered some sites that can expand your understanding of Bats.
If you are still wanting more though then drop by the Buzbee Bat House.
There may not be hundreds of links to Bat pages at this site - but it must come close. There are links to sites for each continent, links for schools and links for academic work.
Thanks to Andy Spate (National Parks And Wildlife Service) for putting me onto this site.
