Bats on the Web

Bats on the Web

For many visitors to Jenolan and in fact any caves, if you were to ask them to name something you associate with caves more often than not people would say bats. Of course some people get confused and when they think of bats they imagine flying foxes/fruit bats flying through the caves. The typical types of bats to be seen in the caves at Jenolan include the bentwing and eastern horseshoe, which among other things, are considerably smaller than your typical fruit bat.

Rather than try and explain about bats, references are made to various websites around the world which will help to better explain this fascinating mammal. All of the links within this page link to external pages. If you click on the link it will open the page within this frame. If you would prefer to open the page outside of the frame, just right click on the link and then select the option to open in a new window.

Since a lot of school children look at this website I believe that a really good starting point for them can be found at Bats4Kids. The site explains a variety of concepts in a manner that is both well researched and entertaining. Issues such as diet, habitat, navigation and appearance are all covered at this website. The games section is definitely worth a look. Many games on educational websites are simple word games. At Bats4Kids there is a large choice. Make a point of checking out BatFlight where you have to manoeuvre a bat in flight, avoiding being eaten by owls but snatching insects to eat as you make your way back to your cave.

Another good bat site for schools is the Bat Cave which is managed by Canada's Royal Ontario Museum. What makes this site slightly different is that it is based on a reconstruction of parts of St Clair Cave in Jamaica. Visitors have the option of uncovering various myths related to bats or going on a tour of the Bat Cave. A tour of the cave is a graphic discovery process whereby the different species of bats within the actual cave are encountered with a full description given of the bat and its habitat.

For something much closer to home and aimed at an older audience, have a look at at Cave Dwelling Bats of East Gippsland which gives good information on the types of bats that are likely to be seen around Jenolan as well. Contact for the website is Peter Ackroyd who would be known to many people involved in speleology in Australia. Many people are aware that at Naracoorte Caves in South Australia they have an Infra Red camera so you can see the bats inside the cave. If you can't make it to Naracoorte you can pay a visit to the National Zoo in Washington DC's BATcam site. The image is updated every time you reload the page plus you can also download video footage of the bats.

Another site that provides a lot of good technical information is that run by the British Bat Conservation Trust. There is a wealth of information on bats at this site with the emphasis, as the name suggests, on bat conservation. Of particular note is the section on echo location which includes a selection of wave files from various types of bats. Of course, you ordinarily can't hear the sounds bats use to navigate by, but if you use a bat detector you can make those sounds audible to the human ear. There are lots of bat detector designs around - one of the simplest can be found at the Bat Detector page.

Finally, it might be an idea to find out a bit about Lyssavirus. There has been much in the news about this virus and although the bats at Jenolan do not carry it, it is nevertheless another aspect of bats that is of interest. To find out more about the Lyssavirus have a look at the CSIRO Lyssavirus fact sheet.

Hopefully you have discovered some sites that can expand your understanding of bats. If you are still wanting more though then drop by the Buzbee Bat House. There may not be hundreds of links to bat pages at this site - but it must come close. There are links to sites for each continent, links for schools and links for academic work. Thanks to Andy Spate (National Parks And Wildlife Service) for putting me onto this site.

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