Bat Dissection on Halloween!

       
            Today we went to the Science Center to dissect a…bat! The preservative hurt my nose; however, I eventually got used to the burning smell.

            The first activity was watching a video about bats with large wings hunting their prey. The video was very interesting because some bats catch their small insect prey with their tiny feet.

            After the very interesting video, it was time to learn a few educational bat facts: the smallest bat can be the size of a finger, and the largest bat can be the size of a bathtub. Wow! More interesting facts are that mega bats eat fruit, pollen, and nectar, and micro bats eat insects, like moths and butterflies. Vampire bats suck blood, of course.

            Finally it was time to dissect a bat. We started our dissection by pinning the small Mexican free-tailed bat’s wings to the square shaped, blue dissecting mat. Then we kept ripping off the skin and we were cutting bones like you could not believe. After we completed our dissection, our bat was completely decimated. We had a fun and batty time at our favorite science place, the Arizona Science Center. 

Mexican free-tailed bat

     Interesting bat facts:

• Bat urinate while drinking blood from cattle.
• They are related to lemurs and apes.
• The largest bat is the size of a bathtub.
• Bats come out at night so they have less competition from birds for hunting insects.
• They hang upside down so it is easier for them to let go, flap their wings, and fly off.
• Bats eat 60% of their body weight everyday.

Decimated!

A foot on the electronic microscope.

The bat still in its jar.