1. lifelines
  2. Attempts to save Houston's bats

Attempts to save Houston's bats

By dr. dolittle on August 29, 2017.

Image result for mexican free-tailed bat wikimedia

Got bugs? Get a bat. As many species of bats are insectivores, they help keep insect populations in check. Hurricane Harvey has been devastating to people, animals and property. So it probably comes as no surprise that there are many volunteers dedicating their time to saving animals displaced by Hurricane Harvey as well. From squirrels, cats and dogs to...you guessed it...bats. It turns out that bats are not very good swimmers.  The Waugh Bridge is home to a population of roughly 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats that became stranded with the rising floodwaters. Witnessing dead and struggling bats in the waters, volunteers worked hard to try to rescue as many bats as possible using any means available including umbrellas, branches, tennis rackets, nets, etc.

Each night these bats consume about 2.5 tons of insects. In the aftermath of the flood, insects like mosquitoes are expected to proliferate along with the diseases they carry. With such large appetites, existence without bats would be pretty buggy.

Source:

CBS News

Tags
Life Science
bat
flood
Harvey
Houston
pest
Categories
Life Sciences

More like this

Economical reasons to save bats
Image of a corn earworm by Sarah from Statesboro GA, USA (Corn Earworm on corn ear) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that bats are important nocturnal predators of…
Flight advantages in older hummingbirds
Image of ruby-throated hummingbird by Joe Schneid, Louisville, Kentucky (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons In a new study published in The Auk, scientists report that well-fueled older tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) …
Limb regeneration in brittle stars
Image of brittle star by Jerry Kirkhart from Los Osos, Calif. [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons A new study published in Frontiers in Zoology examined the developmental process involved in regulating limb regeneration in brittle stars (Amphiura…
Proof cats outcompete dogs?
By Noel Feans (originally posted to Flickr as Watch your back!) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons New research suggests that cats may have played a role in the extinction of about 40 species of wild dogs by simply out-hunting them and therefore…