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Presentation opens students eyes about bats
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .During her Oct. 17 presentation on bats, Boardman Park outdoor education specialist Karen McCallum showed Stadium Drive kindergartners a plush toy that showed the accurate size of local brown bats.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Stadium Drive kindergartners AntaJuan Hightower (left), Ali Fazal, Haylie Viars, and Shuruq Mousa showed off a puppet (left) of their new favorite animal, as well as stickers from Boardman Park which read "Ask me what I learned about bats today."
By SARAH FOOR
Karen McCallum, activity director and outdoor education specialist at Boardman Park, never liked the expression that someone is “as blind as a bat,” mostly because she knows that the flying mammal isn’t actually blind.
To clear up the common misinformation about bats, McCallum visited the kindergartners of Stadium Drive Elementary on Oct. 17 to teach the students many fun facts about the animal.
“I love to teach about bats because they are animals that we can see right here in our area. I also like to clear up assumptions about them — bats aren’t blind, like most people think. Their hearing is simply a lot better so they depend on it more,” McCallum explained.
McCallum read the book “Big Brown Bat” to the kindergartners, exploring the type of bat most often found in the Mahoning Valley. The book shares the life cycle of the brown bat from the birth of a pup, to learning to feed and hibernating through the winter.
McCallum also added further information on the bat’s use of echo location to explore their surroundings and to feed.
“Local bats can eat over 1,000 bugs and grubs in a night. They eat a third of their weight every time they go out. That is kind of like you kindergartners eating a whole Thanksgiving dinner every night,” McCallum said with a laugh. McCallum explained that many bats will hibernate or migrate during the wintertime, but invited the students to look for bats in the area next summer.
“The next time you see them, I’m glad you’ll have a better idea of what bats are really like,” shared McCallum.