Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
As nighttime arrives, Leslie Sturges inspects a
colony of bats she has been studying. The bats
gather in these wooden boxes high on a pole. One by
one, they fly away to hunt for insects. Sturges is
concerned that she found only half the number of
bats as last year. She hopes some have returned to
their winter home.
LESLIE STURGES: "My hope is that a lot of the colony
already moved out. But I can't be that optimistic as
far as bats are concerned in the Mid-Atlantic."
"And so there's Titan, and this is a younger one..."
Sturges is director of a Washington, DC, area group
called Bat World NOVA. "All right, monkey, you can
have it..."
She cares for injured and orphaned bats in her home.
Then she releases them back to the wild.
Bat populations are falling worldwide, mostly
because their territory is being destroyed and
because of overuse of pesticide chemicals. Sturges
adds that many people are concerned about bats.
LESLIE STURGES: "You hear a lot of people refer to
bats as filthy. But they aren't. They groom like
cats and dogs do. They use these toes back here to
actually comb their fur out."
Sturges also teaches the importance of bats at
nature centers and in schools. Her aim is to support
efforts for protecting the animals.
LESLIE STURGES: "In North America, their primary
role is pest control for plant-eating insects. So we
have ... you know, anybody who grows anything is
getting an assist from bats."
"This is called the bat detector..."
Many people think bats are blind, but their eyesight
is good. At night, bats use their ears to listen for
objects. We can hear sounds made by bats with this
device.
"That's his echo-location calls coming through."
Sturges and her assistant, Sherry Keen, cared for 30
bats this summer.
"And these are all this year's orphans."
When the bats feel well enough to fly, she moves
them to this restricted area so they can develop
their flight skills. Today, she plans to release a
red bat named Shaggy.
LESILE STURGES: "He came as an older juvenile. And
we've just been waiting for him to exhibit really
good flight skills."
Sturges wants to make sure Shaggy has a good meal
before his release. Later, it is time for him to
return to the wild.
LESLIE STURGES: "Bye, Shags. Be good out there..."
But Shaggy does not want to leave. He wants to rest
after the meal.
LESLIE STURGES: "So I think what I am going to do is
probably put him back in and let him nap for an hour
or so and I am going to try and release him again
later on tonight. Because he has to go. He can't
live here."
Sturges says Shaggy's chances of survival are good.
Red bats are common in the Washington area. One last
bat nap and then it will be off to the wild. I'm
Shirley Griffith.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
