Sandra Markle - Little Lost Bat

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Sandra Markle

Little Lost Bat

Illustrated by

Alan Marks

With love for my mother, Dorothy HaldemanS. M.

To Preston Primary SchoolA. M.

Acknowledgments

Sandra Markle would like to thank Barbara French, Bat Conservation

International, and Amanda Lollar, founder and president of Bat World

Sanctuary, for sharing their expertise and enthusiasm. A special thank you

to Skip Jeffery for his loving support throughout the creative process.

2009 First paperback edition

Text copyright 2006 by Sandra Markle

Illustrations copyright 2006 by Alan Marks

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Charlesbridge and colophon are registered trademarks of Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

Published by Charlesbridge

85 Main Street

Watertown, MA 02472

(617) 926-0329

www.charlesbridge.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Markle, Sandra.

Little lost bat / Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Alan Marks.

p. cm.

Summary: Chronicles the early life of an orphaned Mexican free-tailed

bat, from its birth to its adoption by a new mother. Includes back matter

about batsProvided by publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-57091-656-4 (reinforced for library use)

ISBN: 978-1-57091-657-1 (soft cover)

1. Tadarida brasiliensisInfancyJuvenile literature. I. Marks, Alan, 1957 ill. II. Title.

QL737.C54M37 2006 ISBN-13: 978-1-68444-656-8 (e-book)

599.4'9dc22 2005019619

Printed in China

(hc) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

(sc) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Illustrations done in watercolor, pen, and pencil on Daler Bloxworth paper

Display type and text type set in Elroy and Fairfield

Color separations by Chroma Graphics, Singapore

Printed and bound by Jade Productions

Production supervision by Brian G. Walker

Designed by Susan Mallory Sherman

Synchred Read-Along Version by:

Triangle Interactive LLC

PO Box 573

Prior Lake, MN 55372

Its a warm June day in central Texas.

And high on the domed roof of Bracken Cave

so far from the cave mouth that its almost

too dark for shadows

one little female Mexican free-tailed bat

clings tightly to the ceiling

with her toes and wing claws

poked into cracks.

Then she curls her body into a hammock shape.

Its time for her baby to be born.

Even though the rock cave is as huge

as a cathedral, its steamy hot

from the body heat of

millions of female bats

packed close together.

And its shockingly

noisy

from so many bat voices.

The sounds are made even louder by echoes

bouncing

off the caves walls, ceiling, and floor.

Yet all the while she labors,

the little female calls,

CH-CH-CH!

CH-CH-CH!

CH-CH-CH!

No matter that its noisy all around her.

Shes only calling to one listener,

her baby.

And the instant hes born

naked-pink and tiny as a peanut in its shell

she folds up her tail membrane to keep him from falling

down,

down,

down

to the waiting, hungry beetles

on the cave floor.

Then the little bat,

nudged by his mother,

crawls up onto her chest,

clinging to her fur

with tiny hooked claws.

There he finds a nipple,

and, tucked beneath her wing,

he nurses.

During the day, the little bats mother

is only as far away as her roost.

She rests among all of the other mothers.

And she flies back a few times a day to her little bat

to let him nurse.

The babies huddle together

and wait for their mothers to return.

A snake lurking at the entrance

crawls across the cave ceiling

and snags a baby bat for dinner.

Still, there is safety among such great numbers.

But as the day ends,

some inner sense lets the mother know its time

to leave the cave and hunt.

With no partner to help her,

she has to feed herself

as well as her baby.

So the mother bat

joins the millions of female bats

racing out of the cave.

The cloud of bats

explodes into the twilight

like dark fireworks.

Hawks hunting in the sky catch a few of the mothers.

The females, forced to spread out to start hunting,

zip this way and that.

Each nursing mother needs to eat

nearly her weight in insects

before the night is through.

Flapping hard,

the little bats mother shoots bursts

of high-pitched sounds from her mouth.

And she listens

with big ears, turning to catch the echoes

bouncing back.

Analyzing these in a flash,

she homes in on a moth.

Slap! She sweeps her prey

toward her body with a wing stroke.

Next, she scoops it up,

using her tail membrane like a catchers mitt,

Next page

123

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