The Bat Doctor educates Girard Elementary School students about Bats!

Nov. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Dr. Austin Educates Girard Elementary  Students about BATS!

On Tuesday October 25, 2011, Dr. Todd Austin had the opportunity to teach over 250 North Mac (Girard Elementary School) students about bats.  Austin, a Virden Chiropractic Physician, has been an avid bat conservationist for nearly twenty one years.

Austin, also known as ‘The Bat Doctor’, has been speaking about bats to audiences of all ages throughout IL for 15 years.  Since that time, he has delivered over 75 presentations and has educated over 4,200 people about the world's only flying mammals.  

Dr. Austin educated all of Girard K through 5th graders on Tuesday with one of his many Powerpoint slide presentations.  Half of the slides are from Austin’s own personal volunteer work with bats over the years.

During the presentation, Austin covered:
* how he initially got interested in studying and doing conservation work with bats,
* how some nice Australian ladies called "Bat Mum's" care for orphaned fruit bats pups.
* some fascinating facts about vampire bats including why they hop after a blood meal,
* why he refers to all 13 of our IL bat species as “Insect Eating Machines”,
* how fruit bats help the rainforests to survive,  
* what bats eat (both in the wild and in captivity),
* and how a fungal disease called White Nose Syndrome is killing our North American insect-eating bats.

‘The Bat Doctor’ also showed slides to introduce the children to many of the newest bat friends that he’s made over the past few years, including both red bat adults and pups, some adult brown bats and an Egyptian flying fox.  

After a short question and answer session with each grade, "The Bat Doctor" then showed the students a 3-minute video of him hand-feeding a Big Brown Bat some meal worms that had been dipped in Pedialyte.  This is how he helped to fatten up an undernourished bat named Pinky Pie who had awoken from hibernation in the middle of winter.

Austin donated the book "Welcome to the World of Bats" to the school library.   Virden’s ‘Bat Doctor’ also left small bat items for the students and gave a recent back issue of BATS magazine to each of Girard's elementary school teachers.  

Photo caption:  Virden, IL's Dr. Todd Austin (a.k.a. 'The Bat Doctor') with some 5th grade students after one of his bat conservation presentations on October 25th, 2011.

For more info about BAT presentations by 'The Bat Doctor', please go to:
http://www.TheBatDoctor.net

Or check out The Bat Doctor's Youtube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBatDoctor?feature=mhee


Dr. Todd Austin, also known as 'The Bat Doctor', is an avid bat conservationist, who has been studying bats and their behavior for 2 decades. He's also been professionally speaking about bats since 1995, having educated 4,200 people since that time. Austin has also been featured in BATS magazine, an international publication (by BCI) on three occasions.

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I'm an avid bat conservationist, who has been studying bats and their behavior for 2 decades. I've also been professionally speaking about bats since 1995. I've been featured in BATS magazine, an international publication (by BCI) on three occasions.