Photos to make you go "Hmmmmm...."

Here are a couple of photos I came across that stopped me in my tracks. The first is a skeleton of a pregnant fruit bat:

In all the years I spent studying biology, I've never seen the skeleton of a pregnant bat.

Equally interesting is this photo from the surface Venus. I've never seen what that hot and mysterious planet looks like from the ground floor:

Just a couple of photos to make you go "Hmmmm......."

Bats in our belfry

Our oldest daughter came tearing out of the chicken coop the other day, where she was feeding and watering. "Mom, there's a BAT in the chicken coop!"

Sure enough, what was probably a Myotis lucifugus (Little Brown Bat) was clinging to the side wall of the coop.

Bat have been known carry rabies, so never capture a bat without gloves. This one squeaked bloody murder when I picked it up, but then it clung to the glove.

Our kids excitedly called to some neighbor children, so I showed it to everyone before trying to transfer it to the trunk of a tree.

Instead the bat lifted off and fluttered gracefully away, to the gasps of delight from the five kids who had collected to watch it.