maura this maura that: May 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010

picture of the day

my boyfriend's room is in the attic of his house. last night he came down to the living room saying "there's something flying around in my room." we layered up in some extra clothes we could find, put on hats, armed ourselves with a broom, dustpan and some shoe boxes and headed for the attic. Standing in the doorway, looking up the stairs we could see the shadow of whatever it was up there flying around. definitely too big to be a bug... i figured if it was a bird it'd be making some noise but it was silent. it had to be a bat.

we waited til we had come to terms that we were going to be confronting a bat and then headed up the stairs. by the time we got up there it wasn't flying around anymore. looking around, we finally spotted him over in the corner of the room perched upside down attached to the wall. we weren't sure what to do exactly. we got the windows opened and called in his roommate for reinforcements. after our initial failed attempt to sweep the little guy off the wall and into a box, he launched in the air, swooping around the room. this went on for an hour until the roommate heroically captured it and set it free out the window. i wish i had video footage of the entire unexpected adventure.

...we're going to start an amateur bat catching business. we're going to call ourselves the "Bat-tallion." it's gonna be awesome.

skeletal structure of a bat, 1951, LIFE images

bats are the only members of the mammal family that can fly. like all mammals, they have fur and are warm blooded. they also give birth and produce milk for their babies. they are known to live for 10 to 32 years old. there are 15 species of bats living in ohio.

click here for tips on how to catch a bat in your house.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

picture of the day

Mosha the elephant has been fitted with a prosthetic leg in Lampang, Thailand, after losing a limb when she stepped on a landmine. story here.

This video is a trailer for a documentary called The Eyes of Thailand, "the inspirational story of one woman's quest to help two elephant landmine survivors, Motala and Baby MOsha walk on their own four legs. Treating their wounds was only part of the journey; building elephant-sized prostheses was another."