Dead Bat?

axbridgecaver

axbridgecaver

Member
Shute Shelve Cavern is closed from 30 September to 1 May as it is used by Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats for hibernation. Since the cave opened on 1 May this year I have visited on 5, 12 and 20 May. Each time I noticed a Lesser Horseshoe Bat hanging in exactly the same place in the roof of Box Tunnel about 30 feet above me.

Either the bat is very territorial or dead.

Can a bat still be attached to the rock when dead?
 
cap n chris

cap n chris

Well-known member
Yes. This is quite common; their claws grip under the pull of gravity on their own bodyweight - hanging on requires no effort on their part so if/when they die while hanging they remain there - weird, but true! There have been cases where the body rots away and just the leg bones/claws are left gripping onto the rock!
 
P

Peter Burgess

New member
Ah yes, that makes sense. No energy used up this way when hibernating. Just lock in and drop off, so to speak (to sleep that is). Or don't drop off. Actually bats can't 'drop off' to sleep, or they'd end up on the floor.
 
menacer

menacer

Active member
cap 'n chris said:
Yes. This is quite common; their claws grip under the pull of gravity on their own bodyweight - hanging on requires no effort on their part so if/when they die while hanging they remain there - weird, but true! There have been cases where the body rots away and just the leg bones/claws are left gripping onto the rock!
Click to expand...

I cant believe im getting involved in a discussion about dead bats...however.......I can understand the claw grip body weight bit with a view to the action of tendons and muscles providing the grip needed.....not sure about when the body has rotted away though....surely the mechanism for grip is removed......if they do continue stick, is it likely to be due more too calcification, or decomposed glue like gooo??? holding the wee claw bones to the rock???
Genuine question....
 
ttxela

ttxela

New member
I once found a dead bat in our laboratory (in an area that had been vacant for a while) I've never seen a bat in there before or since and the area is now occupied again. It was clearly dead and had been there for some time, it was hanging off a plastic paper towel holder and I assumed at the time it had got it's foot stuck and died as a result.
 
D

Dep

Guest
menacer said:
cap 'n chris said:
Yes. This is quite common; their claws grip under the pull of gravity on their own bodyweight - hanging on requires no effort on their part so if/when they die while hanging they remain there - weird, but true! There have been cases where the body rots away and just the leg bones/claws are left gripping onto the rock!
Click to expand...

I cant believe im getting involved in a discussion about dead bats...however.......I can understand the claw grip body weight bit with a view to the action of tendons and muscles providing the grip needed.....not sure about when the body has rotted away though....surely the mechanism for grip is removed......if they do continue stick, is it likely to be due more too calcification, or decomposed glue like gooo??? holding the wee claw bones to the rock???
Genuine question....
Click to expand...

There's no reason why the tendons and ligaments linking the bones shouldn't survive the decomposition of the soft body tissues.

And the geometry of the claw is probably a self-acting pincer; somelike the pincers in the picture below:
wcmsgallery.pl


 
Les W

Les W

Active member
Here is a picture of a dead bat we found in Big Bone Cave in Tennessee in 2004. The bat is mummified and is hanging from the roof some distance from the entrance. It is very dead but it took me several photos before I worked out that it wasn't just having a kip.

It is an ex bat, it has ceased to be...

bat.jpg

 
SamT

SamT

Moderator
Dep said:
Thanks. This has happened to me before - what did I do wrong?
Click to expand...

your url =
wcmsgallery.pl


robs url =
box_ms08_working_crane.jpg


Not sure where you got your link from - to grab the url from an image - right click on it - go to properties - then you should see the IMAGE URL (as apposed to the page url). its this that needs to be wrapped in the img tags.
 
P

Peter Burgess

New member
SamT said:
Dep said:
Thanks. This has happened to me before - what did I do wrong?
Click to expand...

your url =
wcmsgallery.pl


robs url =
box_ms08_working_crane.jpg


Not sure where you got your link from - to grab the url from an image - right click on it - go to properties - then you should see the IMAGE URL (as apposed to the page url). its this that needs to be wrapped in the img tags.
Click to expand...
The webmaster should know the url of the images on his own website, and that posting the url of the gallery page between img tags is not going to work.  ;)
 
menacer

menacer

Active member
Google is our friend

The toes of the hindlimbs all have strong, laterally compressed, claws and an automatic locking system involving a tendon that passes through a sheath of cartilaginous rings attached to the phalange that constrain its movement. This tendon is so attached that it is the bat's own weight that keeps it taught. This allows the bat to sleep without falling from its roost.
Click to expand...

http://www.earthlife.net/mammals/bat-anatomy.html
 
C

Cave Monkey

Guest
Nice pic at....http://sps.k12.ar.us/massengale/images/bat_foot_blackback11.jpg


A vampire bat came flapping in from the night, face all covered in fresh blood and parked himself on the roof of the cave to get  some sleep. 

Pretty soon all the other bats smelled the blood & began hassling him about where he got it. 
He told them to p!ss off & let him get some sleep, but they persisted until he finally gave in. "OK, follow me", he said & flew out of the cave with hundreds of Excitedbats behind him. 

Down through a valley they went, across a river & into a huge forest. Finally he slowed down & all the other bats excitedly milled around him, tongues hanging out for blood.   

"Do you see that  large oak tree over there?" he asked. 

"YES, YES, YES!!!" the bats all screamed in a frenzy.

"Good for you!" said the bat, "Because I fu*king didn't."
 
axbridgecaver

axbridgecaver

Member
menacer said:
Google is our friend

The toes of the hindlimbs all have strong, laterally compressed, claws and an automatic locking system involving a tendon that passes through a sheath of cartilaginous rings attached to the phalange that constrain its movement. This tendon is so attached that it is the bat's own weight that keeps it taught. This allows the bat to sleep without falling from its roost.
Click to expand...

http://www.earthlife.net/mammals/bat-anatomy.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for that it explains it perfectly. Perhaps you are getting interested in dead bats.
 
D

Dep

Guest
Peter Burgess said:
...
The webmaster should know the url of the images on his own website, and that posting the url of the gallery page between img tags is not going to work.  ;)
Click to expand...

Yes sad isn't it! I've now just figured out what I did - doh!  :-[
More haste - less speed.
Thanks Rob for fixing it.
 
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