Bats by Yacine Norris
Once there was a gray bat that lived in a cave. You probably think that all stories that start with beginnings like that are fiction but you’re wrong, everything that you’re about to hear is true. There are a lot of different kinds of bats but this report focusses on, the Gray Bat, the Indiana Bat, the Ozark Big-Eared Bat, and the Virginia Big-Eared Bat. These bats all have white-nose syndrome in common.
Did you ever notice that some bat names describe what the bat looks like? For example, the name Gray Bat tells you that the bat is gray. The scientific name for the Gray Bat is Myotis Grisescens, the Indiana Bat is Myotis Sodalis, the Ozark Big-Eared Bat is Corynorhinus Townsendii, and the Virginia Big-Eared Bat is Plecotus Townsendii Virginianus. A lot of people just call bats “bats,” but now you know the scientific names for the four bats.
Bats are very interesting and unusual animals with a lot of interesting features. Ozark Big-Eared Bats and Virginia Big-Eared bats have very long ears which is not that surprising because of their names. Ozark Big-Eared bats are usually brown. Gray Bats are usually 75 to 100 millimeters in length. Most bats are usually brown, red, or gray. Some can be striped. Some bats can make themselves look like dead leaves to hide from predators. Indiana Bats are very small and they are usually brown. Those are some features of bats.
The life cycle of a bat is not so easy. When they are born, they learn to hang from a cave. If they fall, they will die. The babies nurse for a month. They hang from the stomach of their mother while she flies. In their second summer, they are ready to mate, but they usually don’t mate until the fall. They have very long lives for their size. Some bats that are the same size as mice can live up to 18 years!
Bats have very specific needs for their habitat and they spend a lot of time looking for a place to live. They have to hide most of the time because they’re pretty small and bigger animals like owls and hawks eat them. They usually eat insects and they have to catch them, and when they do they have to catch it fast and then fly to their roost and eat it. A lot bats live in caves, but many live in forests. For hibernation, they need it to be cold, but above freezing. To have babies, they have to have a place where they won’t be disturbed. Their biggest ability is echolocation ,which they use to find food. Bats are animals that people don’t see very much, mostly because they only come out at night, but if you see one, then you are lucky.
Since there are a lot of different kinds of bats, you can find them in many places. The four that are being focused on all live in North America. There are 25 species of bats in North America and four of them have white nose syndrome. White nose syndrome is a fungus that grows over a bat’s face and slowly kills them. White nose syndrome is only in North America so most of the bats that are endangered live in North America.,
People don’t kill bats but they still face a lot of threats. For example, bats live in caves and caves are being bought all the time to show to tourists, also white noes syndrome, that is a desise Gas can also get in caves and poison the bats. If they don’t get out of the cave in time, they could die! Sometimes the water level rises in caves and drowns the bats! Another threat is forests being cut down where a lot of bats live in the trees. Every time a forest is cut down a habitat is destroyed! Bats don’t really need many things but what they do need, they REALLY need to live.
Bats need a lot of help and these are some ways that people can. Some people are helping to save the bats habitat by putting large gates around caves so bats can get in and out but people can’t. Many people aren’t aware of bats being endangered because they are a creature that stays hidden most of the time. People aren’t aware that bats are very important. They eat lots of bugs! people buy caves a lot and when that happens the bats are forced to get out. People can live near bats and be without noticing them, and if they would recognize that then there would be more of them on the planet. It’s been proved that humans did most of the damage, so we can really help.

Works Cited
“ Saving The Fruit Bats.” Wildlife Explorer 1999: n. pag. Print.
“White-Nose Syndrome (WNS).” USGS. US Department of the Interior, 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. .
Wilson, Don, and Sue Ruff. Animal Ways : Bats. Tarrytown: Benchmark Books, 2001. Print.

2/8/12

To The Editor:

Bats are very important to the ecosystem and they need our help. They have two major threats: habitat loss and White-Nose Syndrome. Bats eat bugs and if bats weren’t around, then bugs would overpopulate. Bugs can cary a lot of sicknesses and they could spread to humans.
One of the dangers of habitat loss is when there are factories next to caves, gas from the factories can get into the caves. It can force the bats to get out and/or severely harm them. Another problem is people buying caves for tourist attractions. When the people buy the caves, they usually don’t let the bats stay and that means another habitat is lost. There are also very harsh natural things like the water levels rising and drowning the bats. I am confident that you will agree that these are horrible things that are happening to the bats and these aren’t even all of them.
Another damaging threat to bats is White-Nose Syndrome. It is a deadly fungus that grows on the animal’s face and ears. It usually grows on them when they’re hibernating, and if they’re sleeping then they can’t fight it. It usually kills them very slowly. You can’t stop White-Nose Syndrome, but you can work to increase awareness and scientists could start looking for a cure.
I hope that you recognize all the problems that bats are facing, I am sure that you will agree that there would be a horrible disadvantage to the ecosystem if they were gone.

Sincerely
Yacine
Leverett Elementary School