Bats

 Tonight the Winona bird club had a meeting. Our speaker is a member of the Wisconsin Bat Ambassadors program. She gave an interesting and enthusiastic talk about the bats in Wisconsin which are the same eight species that we have in Minnesota. Four of our bats dwell in caves in the winter and they migrate. Living communally like that makes them more susceptible to disease. The other four species dwell in trees or rock walls. They like to get under the bark or between the stones. She showed us videos of bats using echolocation to find moths at night. The closer they get to the moth the faster they make the echolocation noise. This noise is undetectable to the human ear but it can be heard with an echolocation detection device. Also, the bats don't put the food directly into their mouths. They have a flap of skin between their feet called a uropatagian. Bats use this skin to catch moths or mosquitoes and put them into their mouth. The uropatagian is also used to hold baby bats while they nurse. Bats are very important to our ecosystems.