-Advertisement-
  About AE   About NHM   Contact Us   Terms of Use   Copyright Info   Privacy Policy   Advertising Policies   Site Map
bioforum bioforum
Custom Search of AE Site
spacer spacer
ImageMap - turn on images

Bat camouflage

Uroderma bilobatus: Many bats, particularly those that hang in leaves to roost, have striped faces. Since they hang head down, of course, this must serve as camouflage to hide them from predators looking up from the ground.



Catching and handling bats

How do we catch bats? In mist nets. Often they bring food with them, so we learn about diet from these netted bats.



Most people wear gloves to protect themselves from bat bites. Bats have great bites. But in my 50,000 capture record Bat Project, none of us ever wore gloves. I figured that since the goal was to keep bats alive so that we could catch them again, bare fingers were better. There's not any bite-proof glove that allows the same tactile sensation as bare fingers, even if they're being bitten sometimes. I'm sure that when you're wearing gloves you don't know how tightly you're holding the bat and that can't be very good for it. Anyway, we had a very low death rate among the thousands of bats we handled.

continue...



Narrative Index

Table of Contents


BioForum Index


AE Partners Collection Index


Activities Exchange Index


 
Custom Search on the AE Site
-Advertisement-