Thirsty bats caught in the act! [more inside]
posted by bonehead on Sep 25, 2009 - 55 comments

You've seen the national anthem sung at baseball games, but have you ever heard the national anthem played on a baseball bat? (SLYT)
posted by ZenMasterThis on Aug 17, 2009 - 33 comments

Long revered for its value as a fertilizer, and as a raw material for explosives, guano is the dried droppings of various birds and bats. The New York Times has published an excellent account of the Peruvian harvest of this valuable resource including a multimedia slideshow. Guano was superseded by synthetics in the early part of the 20th century, due to the development of the Haber Bosch process, which fixed atmospheric nitrogen. An attempt to harvest bat guano from a Grand Canyon cave in the late 1950’s was beset by technical problems and was ultimately unsuccessful. The remaining structures at the canyon rim are now a tourist attraction.
posted by Tube on Jun 7, 2008 - 13 comments

Barry Bonds has broken the all-time record with the benefit of a controversial technological revolution in the game, derided by traditionalists: The Maple Baseball Bat. Using technology and woodworking techniques pioneered by Sam Bat, Bonds helped develop and popularize the bats that are just as responsible for the advent of the Juiced Ball Era as, well, the other thing.
posted by Slap*Happy on Aug 7, 2007 - 192 comments

Winthop Kellogg was a psychologist in the early and mid-20th century who studied echolocation in animals and people. He is most notorious, however, for an experiment in which he raised an infant chimpanzee named Gua alongside his own baby son Harold. They seemed to get along pretty well (.mov).
posted by gottabefunky on Dec 2, 2006 - 8 comments

They are not the prettiest creature's around. More information and links here. The aye-aye is endangered mainly because Malagasy regard them as unlucky and kill them on sight. [more inside]
posted by tellurian on Jun 11, 2006 - 37 comments

It's a queer world after all. A series of animated documentary shorts about homosexuality in the animal kingdom.
posted by gottabefunky on Aug 31, 2005 - 11 comments