Whale communication

Whale communication is known to be diverse and eleaborate and at the Smithsonian they have found: diet, hearing and bones (inner ear and jaw) all lead to whales communicating as they do.

Check out this intersting video from BBC today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32123131

Trinidad and Tobago bats

I am back home from a recent trip to Trinidad where the bats were abundant and from what I could see roosting in almost any and every abandoned house/garage/store on the island.  That may be a bit of an exaggeration but there are certainly many amazing bats in Trinidad.  Trinidad itself is beautiful, while the people are fun, kind and diverse.  The island country just off the coast of Venezuela is home to amazing animals, plants as well as food!  Just a word or two about the bats follow but I would suggest you read more about this interesting country if you find time.

Together with researchers from several different institutions we captured many species of bats but here are some of the more photogenic:

The greater spear-nosed bat (Phylostomus hastatus)

This very large bat makes very interesting vocalizations, roosts in groups and is known by bat biologists to have a forceful bite.  That said these are fairly sweet bats and amazingly beautiful.  Phylostomus eats fruits.

The ghost-faced bat (Mormoops megalophylla)

This is the 'oh my gosh what happened to it's face!' bat.  Mormoops is an insect eater and comes in beautiful shades of orange- in case you can peel your eyes away from its strange face long enough to appreciate its fur color.  Why the weird face?  well that's a story for another time but may have something to do with it's use of echolocation to find insect prey.

The short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata)

This tough looking little nose-leafed bat is the main bat studied on the island and lives in a variety of habitats.  These little fruit-eating bats are quite small but are also famously good mothers and will take great care of a baby despite possible risks to the mother.

The Disk-winged bat (Thyroptera tricolor)

Another insect-eater, these tiny little bats roost head-up (which is unusual for bats who usually hang upside down) inside of leaves as they unroll.  Read more about how other sucker footed bats don't suck here. 

I hope to post more about T&T in the future but meanwhile I refer you to Trinibats.com which has amazing photos and information about a suite of other bats.

Argentinian ants and yes...a bat would eat that

Possibly the worst (at least most boring) B-movie of all time 'THEM' (view trailer here)

Yesterday I awoke to find my depressed cat gloomily staring at a trail ... make that a carpeting of Southern California's bane; Argentinian ants swarming her food. To those not familiar with these little ants, they are a terrible pest in kitchens throughout the Los Angeles area and this is for a biological nuance the exhibit. Linepithema humile occur in South Africa, Europe, Australia, Japan and The US but originated in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Southern Brazil, and in 2009 it was discovered that these little ants are part of a super colony spanning from Japan to the Americas and that because of extreme genetic similarities their hydro-carbons which are used by ants to identify enemy ant colonies (such as the same species but a competitor for a clumped food-source say a chunk of candy-bar) were the same between colonies. Thus, separate colonies of Argentinian ants recognize each other as 'kin'. This means that instead of attacking neighboring colonies they join forces as a 'family unit.' Indeed, they join forces and harass innocent cats and soil the previously clean and well-functioning kitchen of many an innocent resident.

They do not just harass humans, these ants are also blamed for the decline of horned lizards in Southern California. While conducting what has become a nearly ritualistic 'wiping out of the ant-attack' which involves several trail washing bouts followed by waiting for them to be convinced the item of interest is truly gone before replacing my cat's food now sitting in a moat she is clearly intimidated by, I contemplated what pay-back might these ants... i.e. what animals eat ants. I will be honest, I really truly like ants and respect them as some of the most interesting animals to embrace sociality. But really... what might keep these little ants in check before they re-group and plan their next attack?

Indeed many mammals have specialized diets focused entirely on what to me seems a non-appetizing fare. These include ant-eaters, pangolins, aardvarks and well I suspect you saw this one coming: bats! Yes bats.

Some bats, I will assume some very desperate ones at that, eat ants. In an article by Eran Levin, Yoram Yom-Tov and Anat Barnea published in Naturwissenschaften in 2008 it was noted that in Israel, female Greater mouse-tailed bats (Rhinopoma microphyllum) are able to 'afford' the expensive task of lactation by adding ants to their diets during periods of ant swarms! (Ant swarms occur when female and male ants hatch and leave their natal nests to mate and for the female to find a new location to establish a colony). During these times of plentiful ants up to 90% of the bats diets include these unsavory treats. Perhaps my favorite part of the article was the pitiful photo of a bat with an dis-articulated ant heat stuck to it's lip (below right).

Mouse-tailed bats in a colony (photo form Arkive)

So if i were to suggest a timely sci-fi B movie, (of better quality relative to 'THEM' pictured above, which I must say is the most boring 'attack of the killer....(fill in blank but make sure it is larger than usual and relentless)' movie, which is especially surprising considering that THEM features giant killer-ants which seems like a winning plot-line) it would involve mutant bats released from a sealed cave that opened during a recent earthquake. These bats would wipe-out the Argentinian super colony of ants of Southern California or at least keep the kitchens and cat food bowls of residents ant-free!

My study species the Jamaican fruit bat

Let me start by introducing my study species the Jamaican fruit bat

Scientific name: Artibeus jamaicensis (above).

These 'little' guys are in fact rather large for bats weighing around 40 grams (about 1.4 ounces roughly equivalent to a small packet of jello from your supermarket). Indeed, most bats at least in the Americas are fairly small (weighing less than an ounce which is about how much 5 US quarters weigh) and eat insects.

Artibeus however are frugivores (eat fruit) and in particular seem to prefer figs over all other fruits. This may be in part because figs (plant genus Ficus) tend to be particularly abundant where these bats live. Regardless, because they are fairly big and rely on a diet that does not provide them with a lot of protein (imagine if you were to only eat fruits and vegetables without the occasional meat or nuts) they have to eat a lot. Additionally flying takes a lot of energy so the need for food is greater still.

So to deal with their voracious appetite these bats grab entire fruits and fly somewhere nearby (a tree branch works well) and while hanging upside down they squeeze the fruit in their strong jaws and squeeze the fruit to drink the juice and the remaining pulp is dropped. Indeed Jamaican fruit bats have some of the strongest jaw muscles of bats their size because of their diet. This dietary strategy provides a fairly efficient way for them to digest the 'good stuff' in their food with minimal effort.

More to come about these lovely bats and what I am trying to research.... please come back to learn more!