The Bat Cave / The Cadi Shack / Tillamook
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The Bat Cave, Cadi Shack, or Tillamook
The Bat Cave / Tillamook is the central meeting area for the afternoon portion of Animals Field Study. This octagonal building contains self- exploration activities, and live animals in tanks. When you bring your students into the bat cave, it is good to have a plan. If you want to handle a live animal, organize your students on the benches in a way they can be successful before taking the animal out of its enclosure. |
If you want your students to learn some Latin and Greek, have some examples in mind, and point them out to your students. Talk about how each Latin or Greek word relates to the English word they already know.
Give your students a little bit of structured time to explore in the Bat Cave on their own. Walk around to each student and encourage them to get more out of what catches their interest by asking them questions about it, or by helping them to make some observations. Remember, the Bat Cave is a popular destination. As with all stations, try not to spend more than about 25 minutes exploring. |
Rubber Boa
Charina bottae
Rubber Boas are extremely docile and slow-moving snakes, which makes them ideal for handling with reluctant children (or student leaders!) Rubber Boas never bite or strike as a defense mechanism, although they may excrete musk if they feel threatened.
Rubber Boas eat a variety of small animals, but they prefer nestling rodents (a.k.a. baby mice) and will eat the entire litter while fending off the mother with their blunt tail. Most wild Rubber Boas have extensive scarring on their tail because of this.
Since they neither bite, nor move quickly, Rubber Boas' best defense against predators is their reclusive nature. They hide, burrow, and emerge primarily at night.
The current Rubber Boa in the Bat Cave is McGonagall. Her predecessor was named Salazar, after Salazar Slytherin from the Harry Potter book series, so McGonagall is named for Professor Minerva McGonagall from the same series.
Charina bottae
Rubber Boas are extremely docile and slow-moving snakes, which makes them ideal for handling with reluctant children (or student leaders!) Rubber Boas never bite or strike as a defense mechanism, although they may excrete musk if they feel threatened.
Rubber Boas eat a variety of small animals, but they prefer nestling rodents (a.k.a. baby mice) and will eat the entire litter while fending off the mother with their blunt tail. Most wild Rubber Boas have extensive scarring on their tail because of this.
Since they neither bite, nor move quickly, Rubber Boas' best defense against predators is their reclusive nature. They hide, burrow, and emerge primarily at night.
The current Rubber Boa in the Bat Cave is McGonagall. Her predecessor was named Salazar, after Salazar Slytherin from the Harry Potter book series, so McGonagall is named for Professor Minerva McGonagall from the same series.
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Northern Alligator Lizard
Elgaria principis The Northern Alligator Lizard is so called because of its resemblance to an alligator. Alligator lizards are viviparous, meaning they give birth to live young. They eat a variety of small invertebrates. Northern Alligator Lizards can lose their tails when threatened, and like some other lizards, the lost tail will grow back. Lizards with this adaptation have a central area of their tail with bones that break easily and muscles that pull apart easily. The blood vessels in this region constrict to stop the bleeding when this occurs. The Northern Alligator Lizard in the Bat Cave is named Neil, after Armstrong, Gaiman, DeGrasse Tyson, and Patrick Harris. |
Giant Northwest Millipede
Tylobolus deses The Giant Northwest Millipede is not as common as the Yellow-spotted Millipede (or Clown Millipede). It eats primarily decomposing leaf litter that forms the duff layer of the soil, and excretes rich topsoil. The name millipede means "thousand-foot," but no millipede has that many legs. The Giant Northwest Millipedes have about 200 legs. The millipedes in the Bat Cave are slow to unroll from their defensive posture, but once they awaken, watching their legs move in a wave-motion can be hypnotic. All of the millipedes in the Bat Cave have names that can be shortened to the nickname "milli." |
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Little Brown Bat Myotis Lucifugus The bats that frequent the Bat Cave are Little Brown Bats. They are insectivores, and use echolocation to find their prey at night. Play with Guido to the left to see echolocation in cartoonish action. In the Bat Cave, the bats roost where the ceiling beams make nice dark corners. They usually like the corners that are halfway between the apex of the building and junction of the walls and ceiling. Little Brown Bats hibernate in the winter, which is why you will not find them in the Bat Cave at the beginning of the spring session, or toward the end of the fall session. |
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Latin
ab - from adaptare - to fit aequus - equal agricola - farmer alias - at another time alibi - in another time alius - another apis - bee aquila - eagle aridus - dry articulus - joint asellus - donkey auris - ear auxilium - help avis - bird bi - two bibliotheca - library bini - two together bonus - good brachium - arm caeruleus - blue calcis - limestone cameleopardalis - giraffe cancer - crab canis - dog capri - goat carceris - jail carnis - flesh cella - a chamber cerebrum - brain chorda - cord cinis - ash circa, circum - about clamor - alarm cornus - antler |
corpus - body
cortex - bark cretaceous - chalky cubitum - elbow culina - kitchen cyaneus - dark blue decidere - to fall off dentis - fang detritus - worn down dies - day diurnus - of the day donare - give dormire - to sleep dorsum - back electus - choice equus - horse feles - cat filix - fern folium - leaf fossio - digging geminus - of pairs genus - lineage glacies - ice globus - a ball habitare - to live in herba - grass herbaria - botany hortorum caltus - gardening hydro - water ignis - fire imitare - copy infantis - baby lardus - bacon larva - goblin lateris - side lepus - hare |
liber - book
linum - flax magnus - large malas - bad mamma - breast manus - hand marginis - border medium - average mutare - alter, change nocturnes - of night oculus - eye omnis - all orientis - east ovum - egg patella - kneecap patria - birthplace pedis - foot pellis - coat pepticus - digestive pilus - hair piscis - fish plumeus - downy polus - end of axis praedari - to prey upon praedictionis - forecast prehendere - to grasp, seize primus - basic pullus - chicken pulmonis - jellyfish pupilla - eyeball radius - a spoke of a wheel rana - frog refrigerare - cool respirare - to breathe retro - backward rostratus - baked |
rumen - cud
ruptura - break sagittarius - archer scribere - to write sempervivus - evergreen similis - alike simius - ape species - kind, sort spina - backbone taurus - bull terminus - end terra - earth textile - fabric tranquillus - calm trans - across ungula - claw urbanus - city ursus - bear vacuum - empty venter - belly vita - life vividus - green volatilis - flying voro - to devour vulpes - fox Greek aer - air allos - other amoibe - change an - without ante - before, toward anthropos - human anti - against arthron - joint atmos - vapor |
auto - self
bios - life chiton - a tunic chloros - green derma - skin endon - within epi - on or over ex - out of gaster - stomach haima - blood heteros - other homos - same karas - horn logos - a discourse megas - great, large metamorphoun - to transform mono - one noto - back oikos - home onta - things that exist optikos - of the eye palaios - old philios - friendly phobos - fearing photos - light phyllon - leaf pod - foot sphaira - globe stasis - standing stereo - solid, shape syn - together therme - heat tithenai - to place trophos - feeder zoe - life |
Additional Resources
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