Oh Bats!

For the last few weeks, I have been entertained nightly.  The opening act is none other than my ravens who fly from one end of the lake to the other and beyond just before the sun sets.  But they are just the warm-up act, for soon after, as the light begins to fade, out come the bats--and their display is awe-inspiring.  What magnificent maneuverability!  They swoop and swerve and dart and dip, and then, try as I do to keep my eye on them, they disappear.  I gave up trying to follow them with my binoculars, and as for catching a photograph, well the best I could do was this picture I took in a store in Big Bear where they had a number of creatures in glass for sale!

Now up close they may look creepy, but they really are pretty fascinating little mammals. When I first noticed them a couple of weeks ago, I feverishly looked for a book I read about ten years ago called, Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind by Warner Shedd (2000).  As the title suggests, this book corrects a number of myths.  For instance, bats are not blind.  They can see quite well, but when flying in the dark they rely on their "echolocation" ability.  By emitting high-frequency sound pulses, they can identify the size and location of objects around them as these impulses bounce back to their highly sensitive ears.  Shedd states, "So remarkably rapid and precise is this echolocation system that a bat can fly through a maze of wires strung throughout a totally dark room."  Mission Impossible-style!

Now if you think they are heading straight for your hair, don't panic.  They are most probably focused on an insect that is about to take a bite out of you.  It's not your hair...or your neck...that they're after, but the mosquito.  And once they have that mosquito, they will pivot mid-air and be on their way.  They are incredible fliers due to  a unique wing structure that is different from a bird's.  Where a bird has a wing supported by the bones of an arm and a single finger, the bat's wing has the bones of an arm and four elongated fingers and it's attached to the tiny hind legs--giving it that webbed look.  This structure gives it an incredible maneuverability that makes it such a thrill to watch.

As for the rabies myth, Shedd calls this an enormous exaggeration.  And here's why.  Rabid animals transmit the disease in the final stage only, and there are two kinds of behavior associated with this final stage.  The "dumb" phase in which an animal is lethargic and loses control of its movements and the "furious" phase in which an animal attacks anything around it (like dogs foaming at the mouth).  Bats exhibit the dumb stage only and do not exhibit the furious stage, which means that you would have to be acting in a dumb manner by handling a bat in the dumb phase of the disease in order to be bitten!  Bats do not attack and bite humans randomly.  Shedd points out that in Austin, Texas "a million and a half bats have roosted under a bridge in downtown Austin for years, and large numbers of Austin residents and tourist regularly gather to watch their nightly exodus, yet not a single person in the area has contracted rabies."

Now there's one more reason that you should welcome these flying mammals: "One bat can eat several thousand insects in a single night."  Think of all of the mosquitoes...or should I say mosquito-bites.

A few more interesting facts: They generally bear just a single young per year.  They can live up to twenty to thirty years.  They hang upside down so they can see approaching danger and spring into instant flight.  As for flying like a bat out of hell?  I doubt you'll find them there.  They are delightful little critters that are sure to find their way over, around or through those pearly gates.