Europeans from at least 30 nations celebrated bats with bat walks, bat watches, lectures and exhibits during the tenth annual European Bat Night on August 25-27, the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reported on its website.

“The aim of European Bat Weekend (as it’s called in the UK) is to bring people a little closer to bats and to help them understand more about these amazing mammals and their contribution to biodiversity,” Defra reported,...more

Biologist Laurie Lomas of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service swept the red beam of her flashlight across the ceiling of the cinder-block tower. “Up there. Look up in the corner,” she said. A group of female bats and pups stared back at her. Their oversized ears left no doubt that these were Rafinesque’s big-eared bats, exactly what this “artificial tree” was designed for....more

In the Amazonian forests of southeastern Peru, an array of animals regularly visits bare-earth depressions for the express purpose of eating dirt. Monkeys, hoofed animals, rodents and birds frequent these sites, called “clay licks” or “collpas.” And each night, reports Louisiana State University graduate student Adriana Bravo, hundreds of fruit bats of nearly two dozen species congregate at collpas to drink the mineral-rich water that collects there....more