malayan tapir hiding in the bushes :)
I believe I'm approximately at the half-way point of my internship, and I feel like there's still so much we haven't done yet. Two weeks ago we were going to see a crocodile feeding (i.e., we were going to throw raw chicken at the crocs from a reasonably safe distance and watch them devour it), but that was canceled for some reason I can't recall. We did, however, get to see the bats.
Rodriguez Flying Fox
We have two species of bats at Disney's Animal Kingdom: the vampire bat and the Rodriguez fruit bat, also known as the flying fox. One of the bat keepers gave us a short lesson on bats and showed us their enclosure (the part that's behind-the-scenes) and their exhibit (the part that you see as a park guest). I wasn't allowed to take pictures behind-the-scenes; sorry! If you notice in the picture above, there are all sorts of random ropes and whatnot hanging all over the exhibit. There's also a long rope path leading from the indoor enclosure into the exhibit. The bats don't fly in at night or fly out in the morning--they climb and crawl along the ropes to get where they want to go. There are ropes that touch the ground both in the exhibit and in the indoor enclosures that allow the bats to climb back up high if they fall for whatever reason.
All of the bats here are males. As with any animal, too much testosterone in one place will inevitably lead to an occasional brawl. The bats have their own hierarchy that changes every day. Each bat has two specific places that it likes to hang out; one spot in the exhibit and one spot in the indoor enclosure. The higher the bat's hangout, the higher his status. The location of that hangout doesn't really change unless one of the lower bats decides to challenge a higher bat.
When a bat feels intimidated, he spreads his wings so that he looks bigger. He'll also curl his lip and snap like an angry dog would. (side note: a bat's face looks a lot like a dog's face, but bats are most closely related to primates. wow!) The bats' wings are highly vascular, so they will spread and flap their wings to cool off in the Florida heat. This isn't a threatening move, but it's pretty cool to see them when they're not folded up.
Rodriguez Flying FoxWe have two species of bats at Disney's Animal Kingdom: the vampire bat and the Rodriguez fruit bat, also known as the flying fox. One of the bat keepers gave us a short lesson on bats and showed us their enclosure (the part that's behind-the-scenes) and their exhibit (the part that you see as a park guest). I wasn't allowed to take pictures behind-the-scenes; sorry! If you notice in the picture above, there are all sorts of random ropes and whatnot hanging all over the exhibit. There's also a long rope path leading from the indoor enclosure into the exhibit. The bats don't fly in at night or fly out in the morning--they climb and crawl along the ropes to get where they want to go. There are ropes that touch the ground both in the exhibit and in the indoor enclosures that allow the bats to climb back up high if they fall for whatever reason.
All of the bats here are males. As with any animal, too much testosterone in one place will inevitably lead to an occasional brawl. The bats have their own hierarchy that changes every day. Each bat has two specific places that it likes to hang out; one spot in the exhibit and one spot in the indoor enclosure. The higher the bat's hangout, the higher his status. The location of that hangout doesn't really change unless one of the lower bats decides to challenge a higher bat.
When a bat feels intimidated, he spreads his wings so that he looks bigger. He'll also curl his lip and snap like an angry dog would. (side note: a bat's face looks a lot like a dog's face, but bats are most closely related to primates. wow!) The bats' wings are highly vascular, so they will spread and flap their wings to cool off in the Florida heat. This isn't a threatening move, but it's pretty cool to see them when they're not folded up.
There is plenty of room in the exhibit for each bat to spread out and not hang near the bats he doesn't particularly care for, but the indoor enclosure isn't quite as spacious. Instead, one of the bat keepers designed a system of "curtains" that blocks the bats' view of each other so that more bats can be kept in one small area. Essentially, no one bat has any idea that three or more of his enemies are hiding just behind the curtains. Not that he would be bothered by such matters anyway, as there are all kinds of parrot toys and cloths and random ropes to distract him from such a disturbing thought.
Another neat thing that the bat keeper showed us was training. Each bat is trained to touch his nose to a stick with a big red ball on the end of it, and they get to lick some tasty jelly from a bowl as a reward. I think the two main reasons they do this is a) to familiarize the bats with humans, and b) to distract them so they can be examined physically without putting the vet's appendages in danger. They're working on training the bats to crawl to and hang on a scale (think a grocery store scale with a hanging hook instead of the hanging basket) so that they can get a voluntary weight from them at any time. So to anyone who thinks I can't train my cats, I say, it is possible to train any animal!
Another neat thing that the bat keeper showed us was training. Each bat is trained to touch his nose to a stick with a big red ball on the end of it, and they get to lick some tasty jelly from a bowl as a reward. I think the two main reasons they do this is a) to familiarize the bats with humans, and b) to distract them so they can be examined physically without putting the vet's appendages in danger. They're working on training the bats to crawl to and hang on a scale (think a grocery store scale with a hanging hook instead of the hanging basket) so that they can get a voluntary weight from them at any time. So to anyone who thinks I can't train my cats, I say, it is possible to train any animal!
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