Indiana Bat Cluster

Indiana Bat Cluster, originally uploaded by jboyles3.

"Indiana Bat Cluster

Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) coming out of hibernation. This video is a composite of images taken every 30 seconds for 1 hour. At the beginning, you can't see most of the bats because, during hibernation, their body temperatures are the same temperature as the surrounding rock (7C or 44F). As they come out of hibernation, they become brighter and brighter colors as they warm up to about 37C (99F). If you watch closely, you can see some bats crawling around on the cluster as they get warm.

I have uploaded a digital of this cluster so you can see what the cluster looks like to the human eye:

www.flickr.com/photos/jboyles/3262723971/

I have also uploaded another video of a much smaller cluster arousing from hibernation:

www.flickr.com/photos/jboyles/3244587284/

These bats are endangered and one of the main culprits appears to be disturbance from humans during hibernation. These added disturbances cause bats to arouse from hibernation too often and they burn their fat reserves and starve to death before the end of winter. Therefore, you should avoid going into any cave that has bats in it during the winter."