RedTango ([info]redtango) wrote,
@ 2007-04-23 22:25:00
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Current mood: curious

The Big Question
I was buying bags of ground cover at a local garden store this weekend and noticed that one of them mentioned "bat guano" as one of the ingredients. That's bat poop. Apparently it is a very very good fertilizer. Not sure what it is that makes it so durned special..perhaps it is very rich n' thick, but apparently it's scraped up and used for fertilizing. Did you also know it's used in cosmetics? Yep...it's also used in mascara too. It's got that nice, gloppy thick quality we all know and love.

Well, on the way home, a thought hit me. You know how bats hang upside down when they sleep. So, the question is..when do they poop? Cuz if you're hangin' upside down, well..you know...gravity isn't exactly on the side of your bowel situation.



So here we have a typical bat cave...there's a few hangin' upside down, with the pile of doo-doo underneath. Thing is, how do they poop when they are upside down like that? It took me a minute to formuate a hypothesis about this. And I think the only reasonable explaination is that they poop when they either are flying into the cave, or when they wake up and start moving around..then they go. Because as it is now, hanging upside down, I mean there's no way, man.



Mammalian bodies can digest food upside down, even people. But when it comes to droppin' the kids off at the pool, so to speak, being upside down I would imagine would be quite the challenge. So I propose that the guano piles must be achieved during mid flight, somehow.

It's an interesting subject, and one that I think needs to be explored further. I may very well be the only one that feels this way, but that's the price one pays to learn more about bat crapping habits. Can I live with it..hold tight as I explore the why's..the how's of bat digestive processes? Can I stand up in the face of dead end theories and having to completely rethink how it is that bats can poop upside down? Yeah. I'm willing for the challenge. So if any of your scientist/animal experts out there can help me out, please pipe in. I'm all ears. You know...the giant type that use radar to find flying bugs with.

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[info]protowilson
2007-04-24 07:24 am UTC (link)
I can't imagine they'd poo while hanging upside down, unless they had particularly good firing muscles, as it were. I remember watching a David Attenborough doco where there was an enormous mountain of bat guano that had roaches all over it, but I can't remember what he said about WHEN bats poo. I assume it'd be while they're flying, or as they're landing/going in for the hang. Don't think they'd poo while asleep. Do any animals poo while sleeping?
I'll check out that doco this evening.

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[info]redtango
2007-04-24 03:12 pm UTC (link)
If they pooped upside down with powerful shooting muscles, they would fire off onto the ceiling, thus covering where they cling with poop. So most likely it's when they are coming in, or waking up in the morning and they let rip what they ate the night before.

I haven't heard or any animals, at least the larger types, that poop when they sleep. I think a certain effort must be made that requires thought...at least a little thought. Plus I think motion, activity and even emotional states and get the intestines churning. Things like fish or invertebrates that live in the ocean...I don't know what their poop schedule is...being in a weightless enviornment and all.

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[info]protowilson
2007-04-24 11:16 pm UTC (link)
I reckon if animals pooped while they slept, it'd give them away to other animals, so it'd be especially dangerous for animals that are normally prey. However, considering how much bird crud I see under particular trees, I suspect they can poo and sleep at the same time. Standing on one leg with head turned around, sleeping AND crapping. That's some serious muscle control right there.

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[info]grigorisgirl
2007-04-24 08:32 am UTC (link)
I recall David Attenborough climbing a huge mountain of batcrap but must admit that I didn't give a moments thought to how it got there!LOL
David is God so I suggest you mail him and ask.

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[info]redtango
2007-04-24 03:09 pm UTC (link)
Wow, I didn't know there was someone out there who scaled a virtual mountain of the stuff. Was it inside a cave? Or outside? Because maybe bats poop outside to keep their house clean. Heh. Although I thought the guano was found inside caves.

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[info]grigorisgirl
2007-04-24 03:13 pm UTC (link)
Yeah it was a vast mound inside a vast cave!

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[info]redtango
2007-04-24 03:21 pm UTC (link)
Aha! An important reinforcing clue. They poop IN the caves. So it has to be either before they settle down for the evening (or settle up I guess) or first thing before they take off to feed. I would guess they do it after they are done sleeping...that would give them time to digest it. When they wake up and start crawling and flapping around, bingo..there you go.

I wonder though...since there are no bats on duty to actually clean the cave floor up.( like a bat janitor).....does the poop pile ever get so high that they have to find a new cave to hang in because the poop has reached the ceiling?

Another question to add to the mix...

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[info]only1miouo
2007-04-24 02:57 pm UTC (link)
I cant get over the "droppin' the kids off at the pool" euphamism

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[info]redtango
2007-04-24 03:10 pm UTC (link)
I've got a million of 'em but not all are appropriate for at least this livejournal! Whoops...gotta go...got a turtle pushin' cloth here...

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[info]thotuwrabsent
2007-04-24 03:25 pm UTC (link)
Gravity, hmm, never thought of that. Maybe that's why I can't poo on a plane. Funny you should mention bats. My backyard was full of them last night. We were BBQing and watching them swooping and going for every bug they could find. We look up but keep our mouths closed, glasses on, and beer bottles covered...just in case.

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[info]redtango
2007-04-24 03:43 pm UTC (link)

Maybe it's nervousness that makes ya unable to go on a plane..I mean think about it..you're 5,000 miles up in the air in a steel tube, not to mention a bathroom about the size of a cardbord box..how could anyone relax?!?!

Although Ralph Fiennes was actually able to have *sex* in an airplane bathroom. I'm not sure whether I should applaud or be sickened.

The bats in your yard probably have a special pooping place..you know..like B'rer Rabbit's Laughin' Place. A special place they drop off deposits.

Everybody's got a poopin' place..a poopin' place...to go-go-go...etc etc those are the proper lyrics to the song ya know.

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[info]thotuwrabsent
2007-04-24 04:27 pm UTC (link)
Can't say I've ever joined the mile high club either. Although if a certain man that you sketch often and dons a greasy black wig and black robes suggested...No, I'm having bad thoughts in my head, him 6'1" me a plus-sized lady in an airplane bathroom...

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[info]redtango
2007-04-24 08:08 pm UTC (link)
You know...I think I'd STILL wait for a bed. I don't think I've ever been horned out enough to think I HAVE TO DO IT IN THE AIRPLANE BATHROOM!!! I HAVE TO!!!

Although you do have a sink right there for quick clean ups. Hahaha!

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Bats in your belfrey, poop on your files.
[info]miggs13
2007-04-24 06:41 pm UTC (link)
My sister works at the local courthouse, which is lousy with bats. They keep some old files in the attic, also known as the bat room. Lots of bat poop up there. It's all over...yet I've been up in the actual bell tower of the courthouse and didn't see any, and that's where they fly in. Sooo...they must go when they wake up.

I'll have to tell the janitor to sweep it up and sell it...he might be more motivated to keep things clean if he can make a buck!

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Okay, so I HAD to look this up...
[info]jessamine6
2007-04-24 07:38 pm UTC (link)
According to sdreader.com:

Bats sometimes go to the bathroom on the wing, so that's no problem. When they're snoozing in their roosts-- a cave, a tree, an attic and nature calls, they flip themselves right-side up, fire away, then flip back again. Most bats have a "thumb" along the top edge of their wings that can grip a roost as well as their feet can. And if you think pooping is tough, consider giving birth upside down. Many bats do that too.

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Re: Okay, so I HAD to look this up...
[info]redtango
2007-04-24 08:06 pm UTC (link)
Now that is interesting..they can actually flip around and poop technically still while hanging.

When a bat gives birth, does the baby fall out and down into the pile of poo? Probably not..I suspect it's sort of like a kangaroo "joey" that comes out and then crawls, clinging, onto the mother.

See..isn't nature amazing? So many styles to life, so many variations on a theme.

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