Trivia question for Oct-27-2011

Carter picked another bat for todays trivia in honor of the event we are participating in this Saturday in Gainesville FL at the Lubee Bat Conservancy for their 7th Annual Florida Bat Festival 2011.  These nocturnal predators are large and capable of taking insects on the wing and from the ground.

These bats hibernate in clusters in caves and forms large summer roosting colonies.  They are increasingly rare across its range; listed as endangered by the IUCN (World Conservation Union).  These guys are in sharp decline.  Habitat changes and human disturbances are the main cause; whole colonies have disappeared, most notably in Britain.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what kind of bat this is and where they can be found?  Also, tell us why these bats have a heart which is 3-times larger than that of a house mouse of equal body-weight?

Good luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out to Wendy Albertson from Sun Valley NV for being the first with the correct answer.  The toothy bat we featured is the Mouse-Eared Bat. The mouse eared bat or greater mouse-eared bat, Myotis myotis, is a European species of bat in the Vespertilionidae family.  They occur across most of southern and central Europe.

To provide the rapid blood circulation needed for flight, the mouse-eared bat possesses a heart 3 times larger than that of a house mouse of equal bodyweight.  Here is more on these cool bats: Mouse-Eared Bat

Thanks for playing along 😉