Tiny but mighty! The smallest US bat, tri-coloreds are amazing flyers, powered by those rippling back muscles.

Oh sweet pup!  It was so great seeing you grow up!

All the best in your new life!

Wild & Free!

We’ve been trying to catch moths for filming, for quite some time now, using nets, light traps, pheromone traps,with no luck.  Moths are super fast, but bats are even faster!  This tri-colored bat has no problem filling her belly with moths every night!

It’s a good day to be a bat!

This free-tailed pup is enjoying all the space in the flight cage now that most of the reds have been released.

Our yellow bat pup led off Hot Science Cool Talks at the University of Texas last night. We tabled at the Science Fair before Dr. Rebecca Lewis’ presentation of her research “Friendship and Female Power in the Lemurs of Madagascar”. Cool talk! Great crowd! Thanks for the invite!

Alvaro had been hiding in the cage for the last week or so, not being found or fed by our volunteers, but flying early to catch the most moths in the flight cage and doing pretty well on what he was able to catch. We’d see him flying but he’s so fast that he was super hard to net for a checkup. We finally netted him last night and fed him full of mealworms before getting him back where he belongs, out in the wild!
Great to get to know you Alvaro!  You’ll be in our hearts and on our minds. Live Long! Watch out for the owls!

Now that most of the red bat pups have been released, the Mexican free-tailed bats have more room to strut their stuff.
Here we get a good look at the free tail and even the toe-whiskers, used for feeling their way as they back into their roosts.

Wooly, the southern yellow bat, munches on a mealworm. He’s heading south today with his northern yellow girlfriend.  We’ll miss you dude! You were so much fun to hang out with! Live long and prosper! Make lots more baby southern yellow bats!

Vitals:
full weight (g)
forearm (mm) 45
body mass index (weight/forearm)
total length (mm)
nose to base of tail (mm)
tail (mm)
length foot (mm)
length of ear from base of tragus (mm)
tragus
wing span (mm) center to wingtip x 2=

Look out world, The Class of 2017 is on the loose! Well, reds and evening bats, anyway.
Now that the heat of summer has passed and ponds and tanks are full, it’s a perfect time to get the pups out and let them establish territories before winter.
What fun to see the precocious pups bolt out immediately, followed by the mums, and watch as they circle back and coax out the others. After a half hour all were hunting the treetops, circling high above in the night sky!
Blessings little pups! We’ll miss you! Live long and make lots more baby bats!