Last weekend, we traveled to Phu Pha Man National Park to hike, camp and explore a bat cave in the park. The bat cave was very dark and there was a large number of bats. Unfortunately, when there are this many bats in one place, the smell of guano (bat feces) is overwhelming. It smelled like ammonia, and I even started getting a little light-headed. It was very interesting, though, and something I thought I'd never see myself doing. We went around sunset, which is when the bats leave the cave to hunt, and it was beautiful seeing the horizon from inside the cave.
Bats are interesting to me and I've always found them mysterious. Bats are nocturnal, which means that they sleep during the day and are awake throughout the evening and night. Many people think that bats are blind, but this isn't true! Although they use echolocation to navigate and hunt, they can see fine. Echolocation is a type of sonar which is executed by making clicking sounds. After these sound waves bounce off of other objects, the bats can tell how far away something is and how large it is based on how quickly the sound waves "echo" back to them. Dolphins and whales are other animals that use echolocation.
After exploring the bat cave, we had a bonfire and made s'mores. The next morning, went on an hour-long hike that was about two miles long. It was quite an adventure!
