SULKIN AND ALLEN 



certain of the caves during the winter time. 



BERRY: But they can't be hibernating all the time, can they? 



SULKIN: Most of the bats in Texas, and there are millions 

 and millions of Mexican free-tails there, are not of a true hi- 

 bernating species. They go out for night time feeding. Con- 

 sistent with that is the fact that they have very little brown fat 

 in the interscapular region, so it's very difficult to do experi- 

 ments with this particular species, 



BERRY: Just out of curiosity, how do you feed them? 



SULKIN: The big brown bats ( Eptesicus U fuscus) are hand- 

 fed meal worms the first week we get them into the laboratory. 

 Most of them learn to feed in about 2 to 3 days. Then we put 

 them on a concoction that we have prepared which consists 

 of cottage cheese, banana, and meal worms, to which is added 

 liver extract with iron and multivitamins. 



BERRY: They won't breed? 



SULKIN: No. They don't breed under laboratory conditions, 

 but many of the gravid bats have delivered their young in the 

 laboratory. 



SCHMIDT: Concerning true hibernation or simulated hiber- 

 nation in the same species, I believe you indicated that if you 

 induce this simulated hibernation during the summer months, 

 this animal is then under stress and not truly hibernatir^. I 

 am wondering if he is burning excessive amounts of body tis- 

 sue of some sort to accommodate himself. Have you made any 

 measurements of weight loss comparing these two periods of 

 time? 



SULKIN: No, we haven't done any good experiments along this 

 line. We are so convinced that this is a different host when 

 induced to hibernate during the summertime that we do these 

 experiments on a yearly basis in the late fall. 



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