Pipsqueak Hear Echoes

The story you will be listening to today is Pipsqueak Hears Echoes and is being read to you by Daniel. Pipsqueak Hears Echoes by Payal Molur and Sanjay Molur. It was a cold night, but Pipsqueak was not ready to return home yet. His bright eyes sparkled as he and his friends, Mandra and Bedomi, flew around the street lights. The light drizzle did not seem to bother the insects flying around. This suited the young insect-eating bats just fine. Pip simply loved mosquitoes for dinner. “Yum-yum-yum! I got another one!” he sang. The three friends were having a competition – who would eat the most mosquitoes in one hour! Half an hour into the hunt, Pipsqueak had already caught a hundred and fifty insects. This was going to be a good night. Suddenly, there was a ringing in his ears and he started to drop towards the ground. Bedomi, a bigger bat, swung by his side. What’s the matter, Pip? Are you all right?” she asked. “Nooo, my ears!” cried Pip in distress. He spiralled down to the nearest branch and hung upside down. “Ow, ow...They hurt!” Mandra set off to fetch Pipsqueak’s mother and Bedomi stayed behind to comfort Pip. Pipsqueak was feeling very strange indeed. He felt dizzy. His ears twitched and every movement was painful. Bedomi used her powerful ears to scan the air for Pipsqueak’s mother. She was worried that Lyra, the bat who fed on birds, frogs, reptiles and injured bats, might attack Pip. She covered him with her furry wing. Soon, Mandra returned with Pip’s mama who took him to the doctor. Doctor Ella looked at his ears closely. She shook her head, and said, “Your ears have become too cold, Pip. Don’t you know that we Pipistrelles don’t do well in the rain?” Pipsqueak started to mumble in protest, “It’s just drizzling, not raining…” But the doctor slipped some medicine into his mouth for the pain. Then she pulled out a chart. “Our ears are very important, Pipsqueak, because we use echolocation to find food. Do you know what that means?” Pip shook his head. He was already feeling a little better. “We insect bats send out signals through our noses. These signals bounce off objects and become echoes. And the echoes come back and tell us what that object is,” the doctor continued. “Oh, yes! The echoes are all different. If they show that there’s an insect, we catch and eat it. But if it is a tree or a wall, we avoid flying into it,” said Pip excitedly. “Mama says our ears are like radars!” Pipsqueak was no longer in pain, and was enjoying this little lesson. “Yes!” agreed Dr. Ella. “Humans use radars in airports, ships and submarines to find objects. And we use our senses to find food. Our noses and ears are so powerful that we don’t really need to use our eyes too much. That’s why we have such small eyes, you know.” “Is that why humans shriek when we go near them? They think we are blind and may get stuck in their hair, ha ha! Thank you, Doc,” said Pip. “You are welcome, Pip. Now, remember, no more hunting tonight. You can beat your mosquito hunting record tomorrow,” said Doctor Ella, grinning. The End.