OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — In this edition of Zach at the Zoo, we dive into the Halloween spirit by getting to know more about one of the holiday's most iconic animals.
- We are introduced to several different species of bats that call the zoo home.
- Keeper Michelle Rabon tells us why bats are so important to humans and the environment.
- Bats that live in Nebraska can eat 60,000 mosquitoes in one night.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
To get into the Halloween spirit – we're focusing on one of the holiday’s most iconic animals.
“I think a lot of people like a lot of other animals and not as many people like the bats, but I think they’re really cute if you actually get a look at one of their faces.”
Keeper Michelle Rabon first introduced us to the short-tailed fruit bats – and they have a lot of them!
“We’re not exactly sure — our estimate is about 2,000 bats in here," Rabon said. “This is actually one of the most expensive exhibits to feed in the entire zoo.”
“Three cases of bananas every day. So about 120 pounds per day.”
Whether you think they’re cute – like Michelle – or not, they play vital roles in the environment.
“For the bats we have here in Nebraska, they’re all insect eaters. They can eat 60,000 mosquitoes every night. So, think how many bugs there would be if we didn’t have those bats.”
“And bats like these fruit bats actually do a lot of seed dispersal and pollination for different kinds of plants.”
We continue our walk through the Kingdoms of the Night.
“These are vampire bats,” Rabon said. “People hear the word vampire and they kind of get scared of vampire bats. They definitely do drink blood, but they don’t drink blood from people.
“We actually feed them cow blood that we get from the butcher shop.”
And they only drink about two tablespoons of blood per day
“They have very, very sharp teeth and once the animal starts bleeding, they will lick up a couple drops of the blood. So, they don’t actually suck the blood of the animal, they will just lick the blood," Rabon explained. "But they have a special anticoagulant in their saliva so they can keep the wound bleeding for longer, so it doesn’t scab over.”
She continued, "They’ve actually done research into that coagulant — using chemicals that came from vampire bats in stroke medication for humans to make your blood flow more easily.”
We take a look at one more.
“There are about 60 different species of bats that are known as flying foxes, and we have two of those species here,” Rabon explained. “Like look at that little face.”
Okay, these ones, I'll agree with Michelle on. They are pretty cute.
“Indian flying foxes are actually the heaviest bat, and they’re the largest ones that we have at the zoo.”
You can check out all these bats – and several more – inside the Kingdoms of the Night.
