Breakfast is the time to blog...
...apparently. I seem to do it quite an awful lot. Including right now, today.
The cave tours are different with the summer crowd. It's harder to keep people moving; nobody realizes that we're on a schedule--a very strict schedule-- down there. I HATE skipping parts of the tour. For me, it's like when somebody skips a line in a play or messes it up; I want to recover all the material, not just flounder outward and onward. However, when you get to the room where you announce the half-way point and you only have twelve minutes left (of an hour long tour), there's no way to do it all. PLUS, we've added information about White Nose Syndrome to the ballroom (where we talk about/point out the bats).
On the topic of WNS... If any of you would be so kind as to donate some money to the cause, I'll be happy to deliver it to the cave in your name.
White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a disease that's been killing entire colonies of bats (we're talking THOUSANDS) on the East coast in America.
The bats develop a white fungus around their nose--kind of like a beard.
We don't yet know whether the fungus is what kills them or if it's a by-product of a disease that kills
them.
The fungus can be seen on their noses and arms, gets underneath their skin and irritates them, causing them to wake up MUCH too early (we're talking a hibernation of Sept/Oct- January instead of --April/May/June).
The bats wake up, which depletes their fat source, causing them to leave the cave in frigid temperatures to look for bugs to eat, which aren't available.
They freeze or starve to death.
The population of bats at Crystal Cave alone are responsible for lowering the population of bugs--mosquitoes, moths, gnats, flies, beetles, etc-- by 2.1 billion PER NIGHT.
So, even if you're frightened by the meek little myotis (left)...
...or petrified by the prettiest of pipistrelles (left-- my favorite)...or lacking courage in the face of the little brown bat---let alone the big brown (far right and right)...
...please, help keep them alive and well.
Ask me how you can donate to research funding for White Nose Syndrome.
The cave tours are different with the summer crowd. It's harder to keep people moving; nobody realizes that we're on a schedule--a very strict schedule-- down there. I HATE skipping parts of the tour. For me, it's like when somebody skips a line in a play or messes it up; I want to recover all the material, not just flounder outward and onward. However, when you get to the room where you announce the half-way point and you only have twelve minutes left (of an hour long tour), there's no way to do it all. PLUS, we've added information about White Nose Syndrome to the ballroom (where we talk about/point out the bats).
On the topic of WNS... If any of you would be so kind as to donate some money to the cause, I'll be happy to deliver it to the cave in your name.
White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a disease that's been killing entire colonies of bats (we're talking THOUSANDS) on the East coast in America.
The bats develop a white fungus around their nose--kind of like a beard.
We don't yet know whether the fungus is what kills them or if it's a by-product of a disease that kills
them.
The fungus can be seen on their noses and arms, gets underneath their skin and irritates them, causing them to wake up MUCH too early (we're talking a hibernation of Sept/Oct- January instead of --April/May/June).
The bats wake up, which depletes their fat source, causing them to leave the cave in frigid temperatures to look for bugs to eat, which aren't available.
They freeze or starve to death.
The population of bats at Crystal Cave alone are responsible for lowering the population of bugs--mosquitoes, moths, gnats, flies, beetles, etc-- by 2.1 billion PER NIGHT.
So, even if you're frightened by the meek little myotis (left)...
...or petrified by the prettiest of pipistrelles (left-- my favorite)...or lacking courage in the face of the little brown bat---let alone the big brown (far right and right)...
...please, help keep them alive and well.
Ask me how you can donate to research funding for White Nose Syndrome.