Harlaxton Manor holds many surprises. One of the best surprises is the endangered species of Barbastelle bat that lurks in the Harlaxton coal tunnels. There are only four colonies of the Barbastelle bat in all of Britain and Harlaxton is one of them. Harlaxton Manor is also home to the noctural bat, the biggest bat in Britain, the long eared bat, and the pipistrelle, the smallest bat in Britain. There are 18 species of bat in Britain and 11 can be seen in our county, Lincolnshire. A few people come to Harlaxton several times a year to check and make sure the bats are okay. My family and another family were really interested in the bats, so the people were nice enough to bring some in to the Van der Elst Room. They came in with three wooden boxes. They explained that the boxes were bat boxes and that they had live bats inside. We got really excited. The first bat they showed was the long eared bats. I did not understand why they called it the long eared bat because it had anything but long ears. But all of a sudden two huge ears unfolded from the bat’s head. The ears were almost the size of the body! The next bat they brought out was the pipistrelle. It could have fit through a door crack it was so small. It was the size of a half dollar. It was so cute. Finally they brought out the nocturnal. It was over two times the size of the pipistrelle. A noctural can weigh 40 grams and an average pipistrelle only weighs about 5 grams. The pipistrelle might be small, but it has a huge diet. Like all bats in Britain it eats insects and if you have an insect problem call the Pipistrelle Busters. A pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 bugs in one night. The people told us many fascinating facts. I hope I have not batted you away from my blog by posting this. Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Bats
Harlaxton Manor holds many surprises. One of the best surprises is the endangered species of Barbastelle bat that lurks in the Harlaxton coal tunnels. There are only four colonies of the Barbastelle bat in all of Britain and Harlaxton is one of them. Harlaxton Manor is also home to the noctural bat, the biggest bat in Britain, the long eared bat, and the pipistrelle, the smallest bat in Britain. There are 18 species of bat in Britain and 11 can be seen in our county, Lincolnshire. A few people come to Harlaxton several times a year to check and make sure the bats are okay. My family and another family were really interested in the bats, so the people were nice enough to bring some in to the Van der Elst Room. They came in with three wooden boxes. They explained that the boxes were bat boxes and that they had live bats inside. We got really excited. The first bat they showed was the long eared bats. I did not understand why they called it the long eared bat because it had anything but long ears. But all of a sudden two huge ears unfolded from the bat’s head. The ears were almost the size of the body! The next bat they brought out was the pipistrelle. It could have fit through a door crack it was so small. It was the size of a half dollar. It was so cute. Finally they brought out the nocturnal. It was over two times the size of the pipistrelle. A noctural can weigh 40 grams and an average pipistrelle only weighs about 5 grams. The pipistrelle might be small, but it has a huge diet. Like all bats in Britain it eats insects and if you have an insect problem call the Pipistrelle Busters. A pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 bugs in one night. The people told us many fascinating facts. I hope I have not batted you away from my blog by posting this.
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Cool bats. I think the one in the picture is cute.
ReplyDeleteHa, he really was. It was also amazing because the bats didn’t mind us getting close or taking photos. They didn’t try to fly around or be mean. They were very gentle. Maybe we can look for bats or newts this summer!
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