Earth Touch Blog

Wildlife news from around the world

Bat fossil settles it: first flight, then steering Mar 24 2008

The journal Nature reports that a new bat fossil seems to have settled a debate about what came first in bat evolution: flight or echolocation.

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Bats emerge at dusk Mar 20 2008

With a sound like rushing water, overlaid by squeaking, thousands of bats pour out of a cave and into the evening sky. In flight, they look like a whiplash across the sunset.

From the field

Fears and smears in a bat cave Mar 14 2008

For someone who is afraid of heights, small spaces and the dark, one of the main concerns while filming in caves is avoiding an untimely and regrettable death.

Earth-Touch in-house

Mammals of the world Dec 24 2007

There are more than 4 500 different species of mammals, from the largest, the blue whale, to the smallest, the pygmy shrew.

Did you know?

Did You Know? How bats hunt at night Nov 26 2007

Wrinkle-lipped bats (Chaerephon plicata) are found in caves from sea level to about 200m (656ft) and require forested habitats. These bats have been listed as low risk on the IUCN Red List of threatened species in 2007.

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The week’s most viewed stories Nov 16 2007

The most popular stories on Earth-Touch in the past week (from Friday 09 November to Thursday 15 November 2007) were:

Number 1

It’s the circle of life: cockroaches feed on bat guano, spiders feed on cockroaches and snakes feed on bats.

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The week’s most viewed stories Nov 9 2007

The most popular stories on Earth-Touch in the past week (from Friday 02 November to Thursday 08 November 2007) were:

Number 1

While adult monkeys groom and scratch, their babies cavort and play in the branches around them.

Wildlife news from around the world

New type of fruit bat foundas Oct 3 2007

A new species of flying fox has been discovered on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, National Geographic News and Reuters India have reported.

Wildlife news from around the world

Scientists uncover hotbed of bat bug deception Sep 26 2007

PICTURE: An African bat bug. Image: Courtesy, Wikipedia

Scientists have made a mind-boggling discovery about the African bat bug (Afrocimex constrictus), LiveScience has reported.

Wildlife news from around the world

Congo forest home to at least 6 new species Aug 20 2007

Six new animal species – a bat, a rat, two shrew and two frog species – have been identified by a Wildlife Conservation Survey expedition to a remote forested area in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The area covers 1000km squared (621mi squared) and is in the eastern part of the country, near Lake Tanganyika, and has been inaccessible to researchers since 1960 because of political instability, the BBC reported in an article on the new finds.