Users that often use this tag:
madamjujujive (2)
vacapinta (2)

A Florida roofing crew is surprised when they disrupt a bat home. For maximum fun, there's also a longer version. (via Nothing to do with Arbroath)
posted by madamjujujive on Jan 21, 2012 - 58 comments

The Beauty of Pollination - 4 minutes bursting with life. (via @stevesilberman)
posted by madamjujujive on Jan 11, 2012 - 11 comments

Woodchester Mansion is in many ways the perfect setting for a Haunted Mansion (flickr photos). A favorite of ghost-hunters, its not hard to see why. It is a neo-Gothic mansion whose construction was suddenly abandoned in the 1870's and it remains virtually untouched since then -- scattered Victorian tools, fireplaces hanging in mid-air, stone gargoyles.
It also sits by itself in a secluded valley, now owned by the National Trust, where cars are not allowed. Oh, also, did I mention the bats? As of July 2011, 181 adult bats and 91 babies were recorded living in the mansion's belfry. There's a bat-cam.
posted by vacapinta on Aug 9, 2011 - 16 comments

Fantasy writer Robin McKinley has a bat colony in her attic! (If you don't already love her try Sunshine or The Blue Sword.) It's the largest Pipistrelle nursery in Hampshire, and it's illegal to disturb them. Here's one on her chandelier! (Despite her claims to the contrary, the bats are not actually in her belfry: McKinley is, in fact, a bellringer, but pursues this activity offsite.) McKinley's bat-ventures have an antipodean analogue: the Botanic Garden in Sydney is still agonizing over what to do with its own adorable hell-fiend horde. (Previously on the blue.) Bats!
posted by rdc on Jun 2, 2011 - 36 comments

Show Me is a site collecting games and resources for children from UK museums. [more inside]
posted by paduasoy on Mar 27, 2011 - 6 comments

Back on August 15, 2010, Aesop Rock kicked off a sprawling collaboration effort, with input by 28 artists, with an eclectic collection of videos spanning from music videos to odd clips and a Kimya Dawson recording studio dance party, works by photographer Chrissy Piper, and lots of music, from unreleased tracks, remixes, and mixtapes. There's even a post about being manhandled by a nude model, written by the Dwarvs front-man Blag Dahlia. Going back to the beginning of the site, the second post was a collection of facts about bats, and the only obvious connection back to the tragic impetus for the title of this ongoing collaboration (900 bats) -- over 900 bats were torched to prevent disruption of work on the ongoing renovations of the historic Bala Quila (also spelled Bala Qila) fort in Alwar, Rajasthan, in north-eastern India. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Dec 16, 2010 - 4 comments

Nine species of bats have been affected by White Nose Syndrome so far, and it has killed over one million bats to date. [more inside]
posted by bibliogrrl on Aug 24, 2010 - 36 comments

Cat, cat, cats on a treadmill. Cats vs. a treadmill. Dog, dog, dog on a treadmill. Ferret on a treadmill. Horse on a treadmill. More about horses on treadmills. Horsing around on a treadmill. Kiwi on a treadmill. Turtle, turtle, sea turtle on a treadmill. Vampire bat on a treadmill. Shrimp on a treadmill.
posted by Evilspork on Jul 31, 2010 - 38 comments

The flying mammals were placed in a closed obstacle course on the forest floor. "It’s like walking a straight line," Fenton quipped, referring to a common test given to suspected drunk drivers by police —except to succeed, the bats had to maneuver around hanging plastic chains without crashing. Bats can fly drunk.
posted by grounded on Feb 11, 2010 - 17 comments

Vampire Bats Biting People. [more inside]
posted by Burhanistan on Jul 20, 2009 - 29 comments

How To Be A Bat [Life in Motion] Carl Zimmer has a lengthy post about Bats over at Discover magazine's website. Several slow motion videos of bat flight including a cool matlabish model of a bat flight vortex. As with all flying takoffs are optional and landings are mandatory so they also have slow motion video of two point and four point landings as well as well as some more pedestrian videos.
posted by srboisvert on Mar 20, 2009 - 21 comments

Bats sleep upside down. They hang by their feet. They have little claws. They use echolocation to catch bugs. They are the only mammals that fly. They sleep during the day. They are dying. [more inside]
posted by Mister_A on Jan 28, 2009 - 86 comments

Mammals | Natural History Museum. From fascinating bats to enormous whales, mammals are the most diverse group of animals on our planet. Equipped with wings, fins, horns and spines – they have evolved to fill many niches and roles. Discover more about this complex group, which of course, includes us. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Nov 6, 2008 - 15 comments

Echolocation : bats use it. So do whales and dolphins. And humans? The 14-year-old profiled here and here is using it. Learn more about how blind people are employing perception and processing of the auditory environment: where words like flash and tags have an altogether different meaning.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Aug 21, 2006 - 28 comments

Nectivorous!!! Those that eat nectar: hummingbirds, honeyeaters, miners, honeycreepers, spinebills, wattlebirds, friarbirds, lorikeets, warblers, some parrots, and of course some bats!!! Many plants are adapted to such creatures!
posted by beerbajay on Mar 21, 2006 - 18 comments

Monogamists have bigger brains. More precisely, female monogamy in bats makes their male partner's brains bigger and their balls smaller, while female promiscuity in another bat species caused males to have huge balls and teeny brains. Can trusting your partner not to cheat lead to greater intellectual greatness? Via.
posted by onlyconnect on Jan 25, 2006 - 57 comments

But who are we to know such things? What if what first appeared as a solid yellow flower was in fact a series of radiating stripes? Another prominent one here. This is the world of ultraviolet as photographed by Bjørn Rørslett, the world as it is seen by insects and... bats and other mammals?
posted by vacapinta on Feb 16, 2005 - 19 comments

The results of the second annual Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge are out and include some dazzling imagery of a feeding tick, a volcano, and movies of a bat in action, an overview of the 2002 European floods, and a presentation on RNA interference.
posted by euphorb on Sep 24, 2004 - 2 comments

An endangered bat returns to the Isle of Wright after disappearing for the century. And in other animal news, declassified CIA documents reveal that cats were used as experimental platforms for easdropping devices.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Sep 17, 2001 - 8 comments