Glossophaga soricina enclosure, Zoo Krefeld

UPDATE : SEE BELOW

I visited the Zoo of Krefeld recently and thought I´d post a few pictures of it´s Glossophaga soricina (Pallas´ long-tongued bat) enclosure .
Enclosure sign The bat inside- enclosure, an artificial cave, is situated in a passage in a 1100 qm oversized "greenhouse" which was opened in 1998. Quite a few species from the south- and central-american tropics are shown, some of them free ranging. An interesting site with information and pictures online: http://www.zoofanskrefeld.de/regen.htm.

The site lists the arrival of 10,5 (= 10 male, 5 female) G. soricina from the University of Erlangen in 2002.
According to ISIS (22 Aug 07) there are 27 Glossos in Krefeld "now-ish" - but I surely saw less, maybe 10.
(Yes, I did count properly. But I forgot the number whilst driving home through a nightmare of a thunderstorm)

The "Zoofans Krefeld" state that Glossophaga soricina was breeding well but that the numbers of individuals declined despite of it. They suspect that the bats get preyed on by the caimans, as the leaving-hole of the cave is situated directly above their enclosure and the bats are using it as a watering place.

The same source mentiones that Vampire bats were once on display in the same house but did not survive due to unknow reasons, maybe their food, cow´s blood, went off in the hot and humid climate of the house. A new attempt at keeping them will probably be undertaken soon.

At the moment the only other bat species on display at Krefeld zoo are Gambian epauletted fruit bats (Epomophorus gambianus) which live free ranging in the ape-house.

The monitor which shows the inside of the cave during daytime.

Bats! :)

"Cocktail bar" for the bats which is filled with Honeywater* with admixed Pollen and Nectar in the evenings.
* Nearly laughed out involuntarily when I read that sign. Why? Long story, greetings to the "Costa Ricans" ;).

The feeding places, I saw two, were situated outside of the cave along the paths in the house. The bats can leave their roost to feed in the evenings, unfortunately the exhibit closed early and I got no chance to watch them feeding.

O.k., the pictures are terrible.
But I´m rather glad the black spots are distinguishable as bats at all as it was rather dark in the cave.
If you want to see what these neat creatures really look like, take a look at this photo by T. Bittner on the Fotocommunity.

There are even Glossophaga postcards available at the zoo!

[ BTW and OT : I´ve recently spotted the picture shown above in a blog entry which dealt with the topic of "Sugar rushes keep bats airborne". The complete, original article called "Nectar-feeding bats fuel their high metabolism directly with exogenous carbohydrates" by C.C. Voigt and J.R. Speakman in "Functional ecology" (PDF Link) is also online. Sometimes one stumbles upon the most interesting things on the net by accident...]

LINKS:

Information about the rainforest exhibit in Krefeld: http://www.zoofanskrefeld.de/regen.htm

Website of the Zoo Krefeld: http://www.zookrefeld.de/

A french site with lost of pictures: http://www.leszoosdanslemonde.com/
It´s a site I recommend to anyone with an interest in enclosure design (is there anything more interesting in this world ? :) ) , there are lots of pictures.

Quote: " L'installation intérieure des glossophages de Pallas (Glossophaga soricina), espèce de chauves-souris très rare en captivité, est également située dans ce passage rocheux. Ces chauves-souris frugivores, confinées dans leur enclos intérieur durant la journée, profitent de la totalité de la serre dès le départ des derniers visiteurs."

Oh wow, my school french is good enough for understanding that! : "The inside enclosure of Pallas´ bats, a bat species which is rarely shown in captivity, is also situated inside the rock passage. These frugivorous [Annotation: well, not precisely...] bats are confined to their inside enclosure during daytime but can make full use of the whole greenhouse once the last visitors have left."

UPDATE:
"Babyboom bei Blumenfledermäusen im Zoo Krefeld / Zählung ergab erfreuliche Ergebnisse
Einen wahren Babyboom gab es in den letzten vier Jahren bei den Blumenfledermäusen des Krefelder Zoos. Seit 2003 sind laut einer aktuellen Zählung durch Zootierarzt Martin Straube, Biologin Cornelia Bernhardt und Tierpfleger insgesamt 21 Jungtiere geboren. Damals verstärkten zehn neue Männchen und fünf Weibchen von der Uni Erlangen die Fledermausfamilie auf dem Krefelder Hausenhof, der Quarantäne- und Aufzuchtstation des Zoos. Es war gar nicht so einfach, die nachtaktiven Fledertiere zu zählen, denn bei jeder Ruhestörung am Tag flattern alle erst einmal hektisch im Gehege hin und her. Für korrekte Zählergebnisse wurde daher eine Fangvorrichtung unter den Schlafkästen montiert, so dass die Tiere einzeln zur Hand genommen werden konnten. Denn neben der zahlenmäßigen Bestandsaufnahme stand auch eine Feststellung des Geschlechtes an. Für diese intime Untersuchung war eine nähere Begutachtung aus offensichtlichen Gründen unumgänglich. Zum Zählzeitpunkt lebten 14 Männchen und 22 Weibchen in den drei Schlafquartieren der Aufzuchtstation. Die Zoomitarbeiter teilten diese Gruppen auf. Zehn Männchen zogen in das Zoo-Regenwaldhaus um. Aus den verbleibenden Tieren auf dem Hausenhof wurden vier Harems gebildet, die dort weiterhin für Nachwuchs sorgen sollen. lumenfledermäuse sind Nektar- und Pollenfresser aus dem südamerikanischen Regenwald. Sie leben auch in der Freiheit in Harems aus einem Männchen und einer großen Anzahl Weibchen zusammen. Rangniedrige Männchen, die in den Haremsgruppen leben, haben eine unterdrückte Sexualität. Ihre Hoden bilden sich stark zurück, so dass sie kaum noch zeugungsfähig sind. Dieses Phänomen konnten die Zoomitarbeiter auch bei der untersuchten Kolonie beobachten. Kürzlich erhielt der Krefelder Zoo noch einmal vier Weibchen aus dem GEO-Regenwaldhaus in Hannover, die behutsam an die Kolonie im Tropenhaus gewöhnt wurden. Inzwischen leben mit den Neuzugängen aus Hannover und vom Hausenhof 34 Tiere im Regenwaldhaus des Zoos, die gelegentliche Besucher bei einer Nachtführung umkreisen. Die nächste Führung zu den nachtaktiven Tieren des Zoos findet am 18. September um 19 Uhr statt. Eine Anmeldung an der Zookasse oder unter Telefon 02151/955211 ist unbedingt erforderlich."
Source: www.zoopresseschau.info

Don't worry about life, you're not going to survive it anyway.

or
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles M. Schulz

"I'm going to live life or die trying"

"If you can't fix it with duck tape you havn´t used enough"

"All generalizations are false."

"You’re Just Jealous Because The Voices Only Speak To Me"

"Pobody is nerfect" or "Nobody is perfect. I am nobody."

I really like quotes, ´specially silly ones :)

B & W

Little human being...

and such a wonderful one !

Harvest night

Yesterday, well actually tonight at 1:30 there was an incredibly noisy hubbub right in front of my window.
Which seemed a bit weird, considering that all there is is a field. And some trees. And another field. Oh, and a little road. And another field.
Turns out that they were harvesting the crops in the middle of the night with threes farm machines. They had reaped the wheat during the day and left the straw to dry. In the night it was made into bales, stacked and partly taken away.
It looked like a choreography...

Jam making

1. By far the most diffcult part of the process: find yourself a nice spot to pick ripe blackberries/dewberries.* Wear old clothes, bramble hedges can be pretty nasty and the juice tends to leave stains.
* In case you´re confused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus

2. Pick the berries. The one shown above isn´t yet ripe enough, they should be all-black and come of the stem very easily.

3. Wash the berries. I put them in the freezer until I´ve got enough for a large pot.
Put them into a pot, if you like with a bit of water.

4. heat and mash

5. If you don´t like having the seeds stuck in your teeth, strain through a colander6. Add jam sugar. I like it "fruity", so I prefer the one for two parts of fruit with one part of sugar

7. bring to boil according to the instruction on the jam sugar package

8. Actually, this step should be No. 1: make sure you´ve got enough glasses. I reuse old glasses with "Twist-off" lids and have never had any problems. Boil glasses and lids in hot water.

9. Fill the jam into the glasses - finito.
There´s an endless supply of jam recipes and instructions on the net.