Bats are not blind, yet use echolocation to find its prey of insects. They also eat fruit and here in California love to find small spaces, such as gutters, trees to sleep. At least 15 California bats can live in a small bat box. Snakes utilize forked tongues to catch odor and place them in pockets in their mouths, knowing what direction to find prey. Spiders are wonderful creatures that eat insects. All of these creepy creatures are an important part of our ecological system and without them the bugs would be so bad that people could not venture outside.
Bats are not blind, yet use echolocation to find its prey of insects. They also eat fruit and here in California love to find small spaces, such as gutters, trees to sleep. At least 15 California bats can live in a small bat box. Snakes utilize forked tongues to catch odor and place them in pockets in their mouths, knowing what direction to find prey. Spiders are wonderful creatures that eat insects. All of these creepy creatures are an important part of our ecological system and without them the bugs would be so bad that people could not venture outside.
This is the message from Ms. Smarty-Plants for the more than 400 children and adults that came to The Water Conservation Garden on Oct. 20 to watch Ms. Smarty Plants go batty, and celebrate Halloween a couple of weeks early. She began with her conservation efforts in debunking the common myths of our creepy crawly friends, and then with the help of Water Conservation docents and staff performed and amazing ghoulish version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which thrilled the guest before they headed out for an evening through the Garden trick-or-treating while getting educated on the misunderstood creatures of the night. Decorated to the max, children went through the many stages of the haunted garden trails, stopping for candy and visiting booth that provided more education on our nocturnal friends in nature.
Water Conservation Executive Director Elyssa Robertson said Ms. Smarty-Plants is its very successful kids education program and was delighted to have her come back in Halloween theme to educate the children about the creepy, crawly creatures of the night. She said with help from other wildlife educational programs, the Living Coast Discovery Center, Natural History Museum, Project Wildlife, Cruisin Critters and more than 10 trick-or treat stations, they had some great partners for this event and were happy to bring back Ms. Smarty Plants Goes Batty! once again this year.
