Trivia question for Mar-14-2011

Carter’s turn and he was smiling the whole time he read his trivia to me.  I think he feels confident that he has a good one picked out.  Let’s see:  This bat is common throughout most of Europe.  It locates and tracks its flying prey by using echolocation and catches it in its cupped wings and tail.

This is the hind claw of one of these bats.

The british population of these guys has fallen by over 90% over the last 50 years, mainly because of poisoning by domestic wood preservative chemicals and agricultural pesticides.  With their wings folded, and adult of this species would fit inside a small matchbox.

So here are Carter’s questions, how many distinct types of these bats exist in Britain  and what is the main difference between the two?

Good Luck 😉

Newborn Baby Bat

Answer:

Carter obviously was right in his prediction that his trivia would not be easy.  We got lots of guesses but no one hit the nail on the head.  The tiny bat we featured last night is the Pipistrelle Bat and there are two distinct types in Britain.  In 1999 the Common Pipistrelle was split into two species on the basis of different-frequency echo-location calls.

The Common Pipistrelle uses a call of 45 kHz, while the Soprano Pipistrelle echo-locates at 55 kHz. Since the two species were distinguished, a number of other differences, in appearance, habitat and food, have also been discovered.

Here is more on these tiny bug snatchers: Pipistrelle Bat

Also, make sure you check out our post about how White Nose Syndrome is wiping out entire colonies of bats in North America.

Thanks for playing along 😉