Actually, bats do go down shafts. Here at the Soudan Mine In Minnesota,
USA, we have large numbers of bats. They hibernat at most levels, all
the way down to 2400 feet (731m). We have tens of thousands of bats.
We recently changed the cap on one of our shafts to a bat friendly cap
in an effort to protect the bats. If it were not for bats, many mines
in the US would be capped completely.
Richard A. Fields
Mine Interpretive Supervisor
Soudan Underground Mine State Park
P.O. Box 335
Soudan, MN 55782
(218) 753-2245/ Fax 2246
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/parks_and_recreation/state_parks/soudan_underground_mine/index.html
>>> [log in to unmask] 05/20/02 06:07AM >>>
Bats are very attractive animals and have mouths shaped to catch
insects at speed in the air so they can not gnaw anything. You
don't get a pair of bats, you get a colony of them and then only
at certain times of the year.
Many people house a hibernating colony without even knowing it.
I wish I had some in my roof.
They probably don't use coal mines unless it is a drift mine,
they wouldn't go down a shaft.
Hazel.
> > what a bat is.Get a pair in your loft, they soon start to gnaw away
at
> your
> > roof members. On a pure mining subject about, houses and roads
falling
> > and there shafts capped. By the way I never met a bat in coal mine,
and
> I've
> > worked in quite a few.
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