Is this the cutest bat ever seen?

 

I found this article on the BBC News website and wanted to share it! 

Described as "cute" even in formal scientific journals, Costa Rica's tent-making bats defy negative stereotypes by living in harmony with each other and inspiring conservation.

A report By Reena Shah 27 January 2021

I drove to Sarapiquí, a little-known region in Costa Rica, during a brief respite of dry weather between Hurricanes Eta and Iota in search of a miniature tropical bat. Here, conservation efforts big and small are fighting to preserve a lowland tropical rainforest with astonishing biodiversity, including one of the smallest and most adorable mammals: Ectophylla alba, also known as the Honduran white bat or Caribbean tent-making bat.

It was impossible not to coo

I'd been warned that these bats aren't always easy to find. They live in selected lowland rainforest habitats from Honduras to eastern Panama. In Costa Rica, I tried my luck at Tirimbina Rainforest Center, a 345-hectare private reserve. At first glance, the neighbourhood seemed an unlikely locale for a rainforest. Pineapple plantations dominated on all sides and spiky green shrubs stretched to the horizon. But tucked away behind an unassuming green gate was an ecological oasis that protects nearly 4,000 species of plants and animals.

My guide, Emmanuel Rojas Valerio, led me across a 270m chain-linked suspension bridge over the roaring Sarapiquí River. In the middle of the river was the small island of "La Isla", once a biologist's heaven for studying the bats due to its abundance of heliconia plants. The tent-making bats chew a perforated ridge into heliconia leaves, similar in shape to banana leaves, to form tents where they roost during the day. The plants are easily shaken, which is one of the reasons they make suitable homes. The leaves become alarm bells as soon as predators, such as snakes, owls and opossums, touch them, giving the bats a chance to escape.    

In 2015, severe flooding wiped out La Isla. Though, by the look of it now, I wouldn't have known. Enormous cecropia and balsa trees had already grown taller than the bridge, and dense vegetation obscured the island floor. The tiny bats, however, haven't yet returned. Scientists speculate that the understory is too crowded with new growth, making it hard for them to easily leave their tents.

But we were lucky that day. Inside the reserve, just a few hundred meters after the bridge, Rojas Valerio pointed out fraying empty tents along our trail, then led me into marshy woods with mud up to our ankles. In the middle was a neatly folded leaf with a brown ridge on top. Underneath, the bats looked like a handful of fuzzy green seeds, a surprisingly effective form of camouflage. When Rojas Valerio turned on his torch, they transformed into white cotton balls with yellow-orange noses and ears. A shiver ran through the upside-down colony of five females, one male and a baby. One opened its eyes and stared at us, dewy black slits embedded in snowy fur.

It was impossible not to coo. One of the smallest fruit-eating bats in the world, the tent-making bat has an average wingspan of just 10cm and weighs roughly 6g – about a teaspoon-and-a-half of sugar. According to Bernal Rodriguez, bat biologist and professor at the University of Costa Rica, these diminutive creatures are the only known mammals with an accumulation of carotenoid pigment, the chemical that accounts for the bright yellow of their ears and nose. The carotenoid comes from peels of the bats' food: cranberry-like figs from a particular tree, Ficus columbrinae, that grow near rivers. Recent studies by Rodriguez and his team suggest that the colouring is a trait of sexual selection. Males that are larger and well fed have brighter colours, a feature that attracts females.

                                                                           

The bats build tents from heliconia leaves where they roost during the day (Credit: Emmanuel Rojas Valerio)

Rojas Valerio explained that the colony we found will leave their roost at sundown to travel nearly a kilometre to the riverbank for figs, and only figs. "They don't always come back to the same tent," he said. "They make many houses where they can stop along the way. But always in heliconia leaves."

It is nice to be able to bring a nice story once in a while!

The blog song for today is: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams 

TTFN

Here's How Much Plastic Trash Is Littering the Earth

 

 

 

The extent of plastic pollution has reached a level that is impossible to ignore; we have covered Earth in plastic — from the heights of Mount Everest to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

We produce around 335 million metric tons of plastic a year. And about half of that plastic is for single-use products, like water bottles. But it’s not just plastic water bottles and bags littering the landscape, though we have plenty of that. Every year, 8 million tons of plastic wash into our oceans, harming wildlife and natural ecosystems. And tiny pieces of plastics, or microplastics, are found in the oceans, soil, and even the rainwater. It’s no surprise that they are also contaminating our food and drinking water.

The following infographic from ClimaDoor explores the extent and impacts of the plastics with which humans have polluted the Earth. It also shows what kind of waste is showing up and some of the different species that it affects — from our rivers and mountains to our beaches and oceans.

Although the thought of cleaning up our plastic-covered Earth is daunting, we can stop adding to the existing mess. Replace single-use plastics with reusable items. Learn which plastics your local recycling provider accepts, and avoid purchasing plastic items that you can’t recycle. And let companies know that you expect their products and packaging to be sustainable.

                                                                                                                                                                      

It looks pretty awful doesn´t it! This is why I am so against plastic and am trying to show others how serious this whole situation is.  Please try to use less plastic,change to glass containers when possible, make your own product, think about alternatives before buying and gradually we may be able to slow down the horrendous problem that we have all made.  Humans are the only living things on this earth that use plastic so we can only blame ourselves to the mess we find ourselves in.

Plastic is not our friend!

The blog song for today is: "We can be heroes" by David Bowie

TTFN

Daily use contact lenses - Don´t flush them away! Not a good idea!

I wear glasses for reading so do not wear contact lenses, I don´t fancy putting anything in my eye! but there are millions of people around the world who do wear them! I admit that it is real pain when my glasses fall off my nose when I bend down and in other pratical situations!  I came across this really interesting report about them.

                                                        

When you think of plastic pollution, you probably imagine discarded straws. And water bottles. And bags. Some people are also focusing on something smaller — teeny weeny items millions of us use everyday. Contact lenses, when improperly discarded, likely create contaminating microplastics.

To help prevent microplastic pollution, responsible disposal is important.

Don’t Flush Used Contacts

That’s the advice from a trio of scientists at Arizona State University. They teamed up to study the effect of contact lenses that are washed down the drain or flushed down the toilet.

The study reveals that:

• Fifteen to 20 percent of contact lens wearers dispose of the lenses down the sink or toilet.
• With an estimated 140 million people in the  world are wearing contacts, about 10.2 billion  lenses are flushed per year.
• At wastewater plants, contacts likely are too small to be filtered out and removed.

“The study showed that wastewater plants fragment them into microplastics, which accumulate in sewage sludge. For about every two pounds of wastewater sludge, a pair of contact lenses typically can be found,” according to an article about the project on Arizona State University’s website.

Tossing used lenses in regular trash is preferable to flushing, explains Charles Rolsky, a Ph.D. candidate who worked on the research project. Even better, recycle.

There are recycling services available in the US and the UK, but as of yet not here in Spain.  

In the UK there are two, below is one of them:

DROP-OFF LOCATIONS ONLY

The ACUVUE® Contact Lens Recycle Programme

                                                                                       

So until we have the choice of taking them to a place to safely dispose of them, they have to be thrown in with the ordinary rubbish into the green bins.  Maybe any of you that wear them could speak to the optician who you  buy them from and see if they can maybe get something up and running, unless this is already happening in Ciutadella and because I don´t use them I don´t know of it!

 The blog song for today is: " Chain Reaction" by Diana Ross

 

TTFN

Home Made cleaning Stuff - Washing up liquid! First attempt- The Castile Soap Method

         

 

This was a lot of fun to make and I didn´t make too much mess! I had a recipe which I found and all the necessary ingredients so I thought I would give it a go! 

Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons of Castile Soap

450ML warm water   

2 Teaspoons of Vegetable Glycerine (I used Agar Agar)

2 Tablespoons of White Vinegar

10 drops of essential Oil (Any)

 

Method:

Put the soap in the bottle you will be using to store the washing up liquid (I,m calling mine Pixie) and the warm water and stir to mix.   Add the glycerine and mix well.  Add the vinegar and mix until smooth then finally add the essential oil.  Put on the lid and shake to mix.

 

The only thing I found was that because I was used to ordinary shop bought liquids which produce bubbles, this one didn´t produce hardly any at all.  However, it did clean nicely and left my hands feeling nice and soft.  

 

I will report back after I have been using it a while to update!

 

The blog song for today is: "Friends will be Friends" by Queen

 

TTFN                           

What can I take to the Recycling point and is there a charge?

  

This is a list of all the things that you can take yourself to the Recycling point on the Poligono of Ciutadella or any of the others on Menorca.  As you can see there are some things that you have to pay for, but it looks relatively cheap. 

The problem is that some people don´t want to pay anything at all, even if it is a small amount and either dump it in the green bin or fly tip it somewhere.  I can just hear them saying "We pay for them to take our rubbish away so we shouldn´t have to pay at the Recycling point" The problem with this is that we pay for our rubbish collection for mainly organic stuff and not any old crap that people can´t be bothered to take to the recycling point.  

It is up to us to try to keep down the amount of waste, be it by using less plastic, making new things out of old ones, taking unused items to the local charity shop to name a few.

On the list is old paint, and on a previous blog I wrote about how to recycle old paint!

There are so many opportunities to get rid of stuff correctly that I am amazed that still people have a problem with it.

The blog song for today is "The importance of being idle" by Oasis

TTFN

Testing products on animals - Less and Less companies are doing this but we need more to stop!

Over the years I have been a keen supporter of various activist groups dedicated to the wellbeing of all animals.  PETA, IFAW, WWF and RSPCA are a few that I follow.  We have seen a lot of improvements but also a lot of terrible actions, in the name of research and fashion.

Here are some of the recent victories that have been achieved with the support of ordinary people like you and me, just a simple action of signing a petition can help!  We as consumers have so much power.

This next one is of particular importance to me and I am proud to have been involved in securing the victory, along with millions of like minded people.

L’Oréal Group Bans Badger, Goat, and All Other Animal-Hair Products

After hearing from PETA and nearly 80,000 of our supporters, personal-care brand Baxter of California banned badger hair. And now, its parent company, L’Oréal Group—the largest cosmetics and beauty company in the world—has banned badger, goat, and all other animal-hair products from its global brands.

L’Oréal Group is among the nearly 100 cosmetic, paintbrush, and shaving companies around the world that have turned their back on an industry that forces badgers to live inside cramped, wire cages before workers bludgeon them and slit their throat. But despite this cruelty, some companies continue to sell items made from badger hair. Please urge Blick Art Materials and others (to find out who they are please visit the PETA website) to follow suit and ban badger hair now.

Karl Lagerfeld and PVH Bans Exotic-Animal Skins

Karl Lagerfeld and PVH’s iconic brands, including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, banned exotic-animal skins after learning from PETA that in the exotic-skins industry, workers handle ostriches violently, electrically stun them, and slit their throats, as well as cutting open alligators’ and crocodiles’ necks and jamming metal rods down their spines. PVH joins Brooks Brothers, Jil Sander, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, Vivienne Westwood, and Victoria Beckham—among numerous others—in making this compassionate decision. We’re asking all brands that still sell exotic skins to ban these products of extreme cruelty. Please urge LVMH to follow suit and shed exotic skins from Louis Vuitton and all its other brands immediately.

This next one is a huge achievement:

Taiwan FDA Eliminates Cruel Food Safety Tests on Animals

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) updated its health-food safety testing regulations, which will now prioritize widely recognized non-animal test methods—a landmark move that follows PETA’s recommendation to accept animal-free test methods approved by international regulatory bodies. With the TFDA’s adoption of our recommendation, there should be little to no health-food safety tests on animals in Taiwan going forward. 

For more information on companies that do and don´t test on animals visit the crueltyfreekitty.com

 

 

Along with fake cruelty-free claims come fake bunny logos that aren’t affiliated with any official organization. I’m going to show you how to tell if the bunny logo you see on the packaging is legitimate or lying to you.

Step 1

First of all, there are only 3 bunny logos a cruelty-free shopper should trust. The first step is therefore recognizing the logo: if it’s not one of the 3 logos below, proceed with caution!

Many companies use arbitrary illustrations of rabbits to indicate that their product is cruelty-free. While this doesn’t mean the company in question isn’t truly cruelty-free, you will have to research it and ask them the right questions.

The 3 bunny logos you can trust are the following: the Leaping Bunny logo, PETA’s cruelty-free logo, and the Choose Cruelty-Free logo (independent Australian organization; especially look for this symbol if you live in Australia!). Any other symbol or logo of a bunny is unofficial and has not been accredited by a reputable cruelty-free organization.

If you are worried about buying cleaning products that are tested on animals, are harmful to us and the environment then I have some recipes on here for making my own cleaning products, which use only organic products, save money and also the added bonus of  not buying more plastic! 

The blog song for today is: "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.

 

TTFN