[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #1: The Smallest Bat
Let's start with the smallest & biggest bats in the world
The smallest #bat is a Kitti's hog-nosed bat (aka Bumblebee bat) from Thailand, the size of your thumb tip & weighing less than a penny!
📸: Yushi & Keiko Osawa
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #2: The Biggest Bat
The largest bat is a Golden-crowned flying fox from the Philippines. It has a wingspan of up to 6 feet, but weighs only about 2 pounds. Also, it only eats fruit! 🍑🍍🥭🍌
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #3: Eternal Life (almost...)
#Bats live incredibly long lives for animals their size. A Brandt’s myotis from Siberia was recorded living AT LEAST 41 years in the wild. Little brown bats in the US can live 34+ years!
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #4: Sociality
Many #bats are very social, living in large groups. Here, you can see Southern bent-wing bats from Australia huddled together, up to 100 bats per square foot! They're quite clean & spend lots of time grooming.
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #5: Largest Colony
Speaking of lots of bats, the US (Texas) is home to the largest colony of bats in the world. #BrackenCave, owned by @BatConIntl, houses 20 MILLION Mexican free-tailed bats every summer!
There are SO many bats that emerge nightly during the summer from #BrackenCave that they’re visible on weather radar! Imagine being a weather person and seeing this on Doppler radar!
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #7: Super Speed
The #bats living in #BrackenCave are the fastest horizontal animal flier in the world, clocking in at 100 mph! That's faster than we drive on the highway! 😮
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Cool Bat Fact #8: Crazy Long Tongue
Imagine having a tongue 9 feet long! 😱
Some nectar #bats have tongues 1 1/2 times their body length to reach into flowers. They store it in their chest when not in use. newscientist.com/article/dn1072…
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Cool Bat Fact #9: Super Moms
#Bat moms are SUPERMOMS! A pup can be 1/3 her body weight when born. That would be like a human giving birth to a toddler! 😱 She can even fly with her baby until it’s half her weight. Wowzers!
How on earth can #bats hang upside down?? There's a special tendon in their feet that locks in place; they have to use energy to let go. You can find dead bats still hanging, like this one I found! animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/questi… @HowStuffWorks
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Why do we need to help #bats? ~1/3 of bat species worldwide are endangered, vulnerable, or "data deficient" (i.e. more conservation attention is needed for the species). That's a lot of species that need our help!
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
In North America, one of the most devastating threats to bats is White-nose Syndrome, caused by a fungus in hibernation caves that kills up to 99% of a colony. Only 10% of the once-abundant Little brown bat remains 😰
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Today I'd like to start by talking about a topic that has received more attention recently: bats & diseases.
[A thread]
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Do bats carry more viruses than other animals? A recent study suggests there are many viruses hosted by bats simply b/c there are many species of bats, not because they are more inherently dangerous to humans than other mammals. pnas.org/content/117/17…
[Tweet by @BatsForLife] #Bats are AMAZINGLY adept at not getting sick from viruses. Unlike us, bats have mechanisms that reduce viral replication & dampen immune response to viruses. The result: their immune systems control viruses but they don't get sick. sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/…
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
New thread: The Benefits of Bats!
Bats are vital parts of natural ecosystems and provide numerous ecosystem services to us. In this thread, we'll talk about these benefits. Grab your popcorn (or grape...) and enjoy!
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Benefit #1: Insect pest control!
Many bats eat insects, including agricultural pests that damage crops. A 2011 study in @ScienceMagazine estimated that bats save the US agricultural industry ~$23 BILLION PER YEAR by eating pests! biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/bat_…
[Tweet by @BatsForLife]
Benefit #1: Insect pest control!
Another study of bats in corn fields of Illinois showed that bats suppress corn earworm larvae and direct damage to corn, saving corn farmers an estimated $1 billion annually across the globe.
[Tweet by @BatsForLife] Time for some Bat Basics! 1) There are over 1400 species of bats. Look at some of the amazing diversity!
Yellow-winged bat (Dan Logen/Bat Conservation International); Spectacled flying fox; Eastern red bat; Mexican long-nosed bat (both J. Scott Altenbach)
@BatsForLife [Tweet by @BatsForLife] 2) Bats are found on every continent except Antarctica in all habitats except polar regions, extreme deserts, and some small islands. There are bats in Alaska, Siberia, Hawaii (the only native mammal in the state!), and all over the world!
[Tweet by @BatsForLife] 3) Bats can fly but are not birds. They are the only true flying mammal ("flying" squirrels just glide🙂). They are also NOT rodents or even very closely related to rodents. So no more calling them "rats with wings"!
Before we take flight with loads of bat info, I’d like to introduce myself & share a little about what it’s like getting to work with bats all around the world! Short answer: it’s AWESOME!
Check out a video from @CBSUnstoppable for some of what I do as a bat conservationist!
I get asked A LOT how I got started in #BatConservation. My journey began as a kid, when I relished watching for #bats during night hikes with my @girlscouts troop. Then in 6th grade I built and put up bat houses for my #SilverAward project. It’s never too early to get started!
Speaking of #BatHouses, check out these links for info on what makes a good bat house, tips for installation, and how to buy or build your own. (More bat house info to come later this week!): batcon.org/about-bats/bat…
The use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to study the impact of specific interventions, has over the last decade become a dominant methodology in development microeconomics
However, some argue that socioeconomic RCTs do not test hypothesis rooted in theory and ignore mechanisms of causality
For example,
"In 2006, approximately 1,300 men and women were tested for HIV. They were then offered financial incentives of random amounts ranging from zero to values worth approximately four month’s wages if they maintained their HIV status for approximately one year..."