A local Girl Scouts Troop is hoping to make a difference when it comes to protect one of Murray's more vulnerable nocturnal residents -- the bats.
Kate Lochte sat down to talk with Junior Girl Scout Troop 1154 leader Jennifer Bryson and scout Alyssa during WKMS's Sounds Good about their Facebook page and community project to "Help Save the Bats."
Alyssa says people underestimate just how important bats are.
"They actually help us because they eat lots of our mosquitos and things and without the bats in would be chaos,” said Alyssa. “The bugs would eat all of our crops that we have – it would just be awful.”
Kentucky's bat population is currently suffering from the spread of the deadly white-nose syndrome -- a fungal spore first discovered in 2007 that grows around the nose and wings of bats -- that irritates the bats out of hibernation and causes them to overheating forcing them out into the freezing elements to find food. The disease kills millions of the animals across North America each year and can completely destroy bat colonies.
The Troop recently won the Bronze Award by building bat houses across town to provide the bats a safe haven from the elements. Alyssa says the troop worked with several local business and government officials to gather resources and means to construct the bat houses.
“When you see all the supplies and stuff you think we’re just going to screw all the wood together in a big pile of wood but it’s actually very hard," said Alyssa. "You have to make sure that it’s the right size. We’ve actually put this kind of mesh thing in there to so the bats could hang on to the wall, because they like to sleep upside-down. It’s got protection on it so predators can’t get in and eat the bats. It was very important to us to build it right to keep the bats safe."
Bryson says the troop's Facebook page "Help Save the Bats" is looking to garner 1,000 likes and shares in order to spread community awareness about the disease and the plight of the local bats.
"We’re hoping that people start to learn about this disease and start to take action because it’s really important that we have bats in the world," said Alyssa.
