This is But Why, a broadcast for curious kids from Vermont Public Radio.

I'm Jane Lindholm. Usually we're a podcast for curious kids, but from now until the end of the school year we're going to be putting out live radio shows.

Vermont's agency of education came to VPR a few weeks ago to see if we could do some live shows just for you since you're not in school right now.

And since But Why is already making shows just for you as a podcast, it seemed like a natural fit to bring it to the radio.

So for the next seven weeks we hope you'll join us every Friday to talk about poetry, music, space exploration, and more.

These shows only work if you call in with your questions. And I should warn you, we might offer some homework for you in advance of the shows.

But any homework is designed to be fun and you only have to do it if you want to.

No homework for today. Today we're going to talk about two different animals that you may be seeing in the fields and forests and ponds around you at this time of year.

Bats and beavers. We're going to talk about bats for the first half of the show.

Now I find bats really interesting, but most of us don't get to get close to bats very often. They're usually pretty good at avoiding humans even in the darkness.

And we're going to talk about why in a little while, but there are lots of scientists who study bats, especially right now because there's a sickness called white nose syndrome that has been killing bats for more than a decade since it was first discovered in upstate New York.

Part of my job for Vermont public radio means I get to go out with scientists who are studying why a few years ago.

I went out with some researchers who are trying to figure out why one colony of little brown bats in cornwall Vermont were doing really well despite this sickness.

So I got to see the bats get trapped and studied. I want to play you a little bit of sound from that trip because you're going to get to hear what a bat sounds like and what wildlife biologist Alyssa Bennett thinks these bats might be thinking about when they get captured.

I got three parts of them.

I'm good. I feel taken. He's got them. He's watching me right now.

There you go.

I always picture things that this must feel like some kind of alien experience to them.

People describe their alien experiences as these bright lights and then all these invasive body examinations happening.

And then of course that's exactly what we're doing with shining bright lights in their eyes. They were just out foraging for the night and then this very strange bizarre scary thing happens.

And then we take all sorts of measurements on them and then we let them go. And you know, I think they must say to their friends.

This crazy thing happened. I was just flying around and then the bright lights and I was abducted and all their friends are like right.

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