Bats don’t take wing on Halloween. Bats don’t live in belfries; they prefer less drafty and more quiet places to “hang” out. Bats are not blind. Bats don’t attack people; the creatures are actually bashful. Nor do bats get tangled in people’s hair; they’re much too skilled at flying for that. Bats are not flying mice; the species is more closely related to humans than they are to rodents. Nor do bats carry rabies. Stray dogs or cats are more likely to spread the disease, and only one half of one percent of tested bat populations have been found to have rabies. Bats are not dirty; they meticulously groom themselves and one another. And bats don’t suck blood, though vampire bats do lick blood from small wounds they create in their hosts — not humans but livestock.
Hollywood often has depicted bats as monstrous, horrible and dangerous. Films like Bats, Cujo and even Old Yeller perpetuate unfounded myths and sinister superstitions that cause most people to react to bats with squeamishness, if not downright fear and loathing. Perhaps the worst PR for bats comes from the ever-popular Dracula legend, in which a little bitty bat turns into tall handsome man who goes and bites the neck of blondes in flowing white dresses and sucks their blood.
More Fascinating than Fearsome
Upon closer examination, bats are more fascinating than fearsome. Consider these batty facts: Bat fossils found in Wyoming date from the Eocene period, about 50 million years ago. The bumblebee bat from Thailand is the smallest mammal in the world, weighing in at less than one penny. In Babylonia, bats represented souls of dead people. The Chinese considered bats symbols for long life and happiness. For the ancient Mayan culture, bats symbolized initiation and rebirth. Native peoples of the Southwest depicted bats in their art and lore. In Medieval times, bats were considered miniature dragons. In the 1600s, bats came to be associated with evil and witchcraft. If bats were flying around a house, the next day the woman of that house was burned at the stake.
A growing group of bat conservationists appreciate the winged wonders not as demons but as darlings. Bats play a pivotal role in the ecosystem as pollinators and as seed dispersers. A number of agricultural crops, including bananas, figs, dates, mangoes and cashews, depend on bats either for pollination or seed dispersal. Bats are effective predators of night-flying insects. A foraging bat can eat 50 to 100 percent of its weight in insects nightly, with adults consuming as many as 1,200 mosquitoes per hour. And bat’s waste product, called guano, makes a valuable fertilizer.
''Bats are so misunderstood, so delightful and so necessary to the planet,'' said Penny Murphy of Aurora, Colorado. ''Each and every bat is an individual, but in general, they’re very gentle, very skittish and shy.''
Murphy began working with bats nine years ago: ''A bat showed up, and I fell in love,'' she said.
At their home, she and her husband Jack keep a ''bat room'' for hibernating bats. They currently have 5 bat guests in housing ranging from a six-pack cooler to aquariums lined with baby blankets. To simulate the bats’ natural hibernation condition, the Murphys keep the window to the bat room open wide to keep temperatures at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
''This time of year, we get quite a few bats in,'' said Murphy. ''Concerned citizens find them, put them in a box and call me. Once they come in this time of year, I have to keep them all winter or they might not make it to spring.''
Murphy said that when she first comes in contact with any bat, the creature makes defensive noises and postures, spreading its wings, pulling its lips back to show teeth, frantically vocalizing.
''It’s much louder than anyone would dream; they don’t talk quietly. They’re afraid they’re going to die, and they’ll do their best to scare you,'' she said. ''But I’ve dealt with a lot of them, and they’re small, so it doesn’t impress me a lot. I give them water, let them sit, feed them. From that point on, it’s very unusual for a bat to threaten again. As time goes on, they see me as the food source.''
Vital Characteristics
Murphy’s law for feeding recuperating bats is simple. ''I feed them meal worms of all the luscious things,'' she said.
Many bats live on a diet of insect pests, including as a favorite food corn moths which, in the borer stage, can devastate corn crops. Some bats have hearing so keen that they can hear the sound of insect wings flapping. Using large ears as well as echolocation, bats send out high-pitched shrieks and then listen for echoes that help them navigate swiftly and accurately at night. The squeaks, inaudible to human ears, are said to be as loud to a bat as a pneumatic drill is to a human ear. Homing in on prey bats can emit as many as 200 shrieks per second to pinpoint a bug.
Worldwide bat population includes about 1,000 species, with forty-some living in the United States. With about 4,500 mammal species worldwide, that means bats account for more than one in four mammals.
Bats can live as long as 32 years in the wild. More and more of them, however, are falling victim to pesticides that deplete bats’ natural food source. And when the insectivores eat bugs that have ingested pesticides, the bats are poisoned, too.
Bats are sometimes mistaken as members of the bird class or even as insects. In fact, bats are mammals, but they’re not rodents, as many people assume. As the only mammals with true, sustained flight, they’re in a class unto themselves. Bat wings are actually large hands, with extended fingers serving as the framework between which the leathery wing skin stretches.
Bats sleep hanging upside down, which can protect them from predators on the ground. When bats hang, their feet automatically close and lock without further effort, allowing them to sleep, which some bats do as much as 20 hours per day. Bats can continue to hang upside down even after they’ve died.
Disappearing Habitat
Bats roost in caves, hollow trees, beneath bridges, in attics and cellars and also in mine tunnels. The problem is, there are fewer and fewer such places for bats to hang. Like many other species, habitat loss poses the biggest threat to bats. Their dwindling populations are of concern. Most bats only have one offspring per year, and the young mature slowly, making recovery of the species a long-term prospect at best.
More than 40 percent of bats in North America are considered endangered. In Britain, bats and their roosting sites are now protected by law.
As more people come to understand the true benevolent nature of bats, Urban Animal Rescue fields fewer calls from people wanting information on eradicating bats, and more calls from people wanting to welcome bats by posting bat boxes.
''We’re even hearing of farmers bringing in bats and bug-eating birds instead of pesticides,” Murphy said. This is a good development because the pesticides sprayed on apple trees kill bats anywhere from three days to three months after they’re sprayed.
Says Murphy, “We have to remember what’s simple and effective rather than always turning to what’s quick and deadly.'' Quick and deadly … reminds me of bats.
