Bats: Three Ways

CW: Animal Death

Apologies for the lack of post this Wednesday! Things are picking up around here (I'm much busier than I thought I would be and can't seem to say no to new responsibilities, you know how it goes), but here's a little insight into what I've been up to! Last night I was taken on a tour of the biology department specimens at my school by my biologist friend and I found a lot of lovely things! I just wanted to show you the three ways I've found bats here!

The first we saw were these little brown bat taxidermy pieces, they look so cute!

Next was a larger, fully articulated bat skeleton! Look how delicate his little bones are! They're like fish bones.

Lastly, a diaphonized bat. Diaphonization is a process of rendering the flesh of an organism clear using an enzyme solution and then dyeing the bones. They're wet specimens so we had to be careful pulling this one out but he's also really cute!

Yay, bats! It was really nice to learn more about bats from someone who actually knows about biology and not just my weird gothy interest.  It makes me want to add more (ethically sourced, before someone asks) bats to my collection. Right now I just have this little bat which was a gift. His name his Nostradamus.

What have you all been up to lately?