MAMMALS OF YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 



59 



animals. Both moles and shrews possess 

 a slightly unpleasant odor, which may 

 afford considerable protection from pred- 



ators. However, both are known to be 

 killed by certain hawks, owls, and mam- 

 mals. 



BATS 



Bats are probably more numerous in 

 Yosemite than an unobservant person 

 may realize. They may be seen every eve- 

 ning about twilight, or, in some species, 

 earlier, in warm weather, flying back and 

 forth over the river or the meadows in 

 Yosemite Valley. They may be heard 

 squeaking overhead whilst the camper en- 

 joys his after-dinner fire. In half an hour's 

 ride in an open car, approaching Chinqua- 

 pin from the south, a friend and I once 



mice. That this has probably always been 

 so is reflected in the German word for 

 bat, Flcdermaus, or "flying mouse." How- 

 ever, we already know that the skull and 

 teeth belie this belief (see pp. 54, 55). In- 

 deed "flying insect trap" more nearly de- 

 scribes our Yosemite bats. 



There are many other folk tales about 

 bats that have no foundation in fact. 

 For instance, they will not normally fly 

 into a person's hair. For years, ranger 



PLC MATTSOM 

 From "Mammals of Luke Tahoe" by Ruber! T. Or. Courtesy of publisher, California Academy of Sciences. 



LITTLE BROWN BAT 



counted more than fifty bats flying over 

 the roadway, where they were silhouetted 

 against the gradually darkening sky. 



The bat's wing is formed from the 

 bones of the hand and arm, with a 

 leathery membrane stretched across this 

 framework and connected to the hind 

 legs and tail. When at rest, the wing 

 can be folded up, much as an umbrella 

 closes. 



Bats are the only mammals that truly 

 fly. Many people consider them as flying 



naturalists have spoken on the platform 

 at the summer evening programs at 

 Camp 14, while bats swooped to and fro 

 behind 'hem, catching insects that were 

 attracted by the light on the picture 

 screen. Yet never has a bat flown into 

 the hair of a speaker. Once I stood with 

 four other men in the bat cave of Carls- 

 bad Caserns beneath a blanket of bats 

 estimated at 15,000 individuals, which 

 clung to the ceiling. In the course of our 

 investigations, this mass was agitated into 



