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FACES ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE: Bat fanciers from all over the world inundated us with pictures of bats.

If you should accidentally hook a bat while fishing:

Cut the line, cover the bat with a box or whatever is at hand, then slide a stiff piece of cardboard or something similar underneath so that the bat is scooped inside. Tape the container shut and find the nearest bat rehabilitator either by contacting the state Department of Natural Resources, or going to  www.batworld.org and clicking on 'local rescue'. Do not handle the bat.

FABULOUS BATS!

More than 1,100 species of bats exist worldwide. Forty five species live in North America. Bats range in size from the bumblebee bat in Thailand, weighing less than a penny, to Indonesian flying foxes with wing spans of six feet. Seventy percent of bats are insectivorous.The other thirty percent eat everything from fruit, pollen and nectar to fish, frogs, lizards and small rodents. Three species lap blood.

Are you hungry? Bats pollinate plants that produce chocolate, cloves, coconut, bananas, allspice, cashews, dates, figs, mangoes, avocados, peaches and breadfruit, for starters. They pollinate agave plants, which yield mescal and tequila. When agaves are hand pollinated, their production drops to 1/3,000th of those plants which are visited by bats. Bats pollinate the neem tree, a source of non-poisonous pesticides. They visit the plants which yield cork, balsa wood, ebony, latex, chicle, kapok and sisal.

Not feeling well? Bats pollinate plants which are involved in the production of cortisones, salves, astringents, emetics and anthelmintics. Vampire bats, which live only in Latin America, produce a 'clot buster' in their saliva which is being used experimentally to treat stroke victims. It's a major improvement over current protocols, allowing a much longer window of opportunity for treatment. And it doesn't damage brain cells, as the current drug does. Vampire bats are altruistic. They adopt orphans from their colony and feed colony members who are ill or unable to feed themselves.

Do you love the earth? Bats, through pollination and seed dispersal, are responsible for over 90% of rain forest reforestation.

Are bugs bugging you?  Without birds and bats, insects would soon overwhelm the earth. The largest bat colony in the US is in San Antonio, TX. They eat more than a million pounds of insects every night.

Some bat myths demystified: Bats are not blind and they don't get in your hair. They aren't major carriers of rabies. An average of one person per year in all our fifty states dies of bat rabies. Three people every year die on amusement park rides. Almost ninety people a day commit suicide. 

Bats are intelligent, gentle and thoroughly amazing creatures. Some purr like cats when they are contented. Recent studies indicate that Mexican freetail bats communicate with at least 23 different vocalizations which include a basic form of syntax and grammar. Yet over half of our US bat species are endangered or in rapid decline, due to loss of habitat and persecution by humans.

Want to learn more about our fascinating bats? Check out Bat Conservation International at www.batcon.org and BatWorld Sanctuary at www.batworld.org.  

Pat Barbosa
Wildlife America, Inc.