Bad news for bats

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Lisa's sister, Debbie, is currently camping out in Northern Utah on a research project to monitor the health of the local bat population. (North American bats are in big trouble from a fungal infection. It's most visible symptom is that it turns their noses white. The other symptom is that they die. Sorry. You were probably having a good day today, weren't you? And now you're all sad and disturbed about bats. I wish you could have heard it from someone else. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Sigh.)


Lisa wrote: "How are the bats doing? Are they happy to see you?"



Debbie writes: "Yeah, they're a little shaken up and all have little Sharpie mohawks."


Did you catch that? Her job is to catch bats in nets as they're coming out for the night, weigh them and check their noses for fungus, then DRAW ON THEIR HEADS WITH A MARKER. To make sure they're not just catching the same slow bat over and over, see. That's ... that's just a weird job.

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