Happy and sad day.

It may not be widely known, but I LOVE bats! I think they are so cute, even the creepy ones! One of my goals in life is to actually get to hold a bat. We have bats living either in or near our barn and at night I can sit on the porch and watch them fly around at dusk. In fact, the barn light attracts huge bugs that they come to eat! It is kind-of funny, but when the bats come out Charles goes into the house. He really doesn't like it when they buzz around his head!
Yesterday we were in Williamsport for some Whim So Doodle business and were looking for something to do. Charles investigated some events on line before we left and found a cave to explore. He contacted them and found out that on Sunday (today) they were running the last "flashlight tour of the cave" of the season. In fact, the man told us, it is a BAT CAVE with hundreds of bats to view in their hibernation state. We were all in for that. So this morning we drove two hours to the Woodward Cave with our flashlights in hand.



So, the happy part of the visit was getting to explore a totally dark cave using our flashlights to hunt for sleeping bats on the cave ceilings. What a blast! There were six different species of bats inside and from the information of our guide he said that this cave is the hibernation spot for over 4,000 bats! We didn't see that many, but we did see hundreds-Little Brown Bats, Indiana Bats and Small Footed Bats are the only ones that I can remember. We got to walk through the cave that at some points was so low that if you were not watching, you could bump into the bats hanging down! What a trip. About 3 bats in total fluttered around, a few of them opened their eyes, but mostly they were just chillin'. Literally! The cave stays at a constant temperature of 48 degrees. The cave was wet and drippy, narrow in some spots and cavernous in others. It was an amazing visit.




Amazing also because we were there on a special day. This was the last day this cave would be open for the season. In fact, it will probably be the last time that bats in these large numbers will be around. There is a disease that is effecting the North American bat population called White-Nose Fungus. It is estimated to wipe out 90-100% of our bat population. This is a fungus that was brought over on the equipment of someone that was returning home from exploring caves in Europe. The European bats are not effected by this fungus that grows on the muzzle, wings and ears of hibernating bats. The poor bats get irritated by the itching and this pulls them out of hibernation early, which is in winter time when their food source is scarce. So these little bats are roused out of hibernation, need to go eat earlier than usual, find no food and starve to death. In an effort to stop the spread, the government has already closed down caves and mines to visitors, only allowing a handful of commercial caves to continue to operate. It is a very sad day to realize we are on the cusp of losing these wonderful little creatures. If you want to read more information, here is a good article from Scientific American.



I was glad for the opportunity to visit a bat cave and I will be thinking good thoughts so that something will be created to help these little creatures survive!