The Bat's Ascent, From Shadowy Fear to Ecological Asset

“ However, the vampire bat of the American tropics is a gruesome reality. It is now known to be a carrier of the rabies virus.
It is a small, brown bat condemned by nature to live exclusively on blood. Its throat is too small to swallow solid particles. Its stomach is especially adapted for rapid digestion. It feasts on all sorts of mammals, including man, and the incisions of its razor-sharp teeth are so nearly painless that a sleeper seldom is awakened. Supposedly it always bites man on the bottoms of the toes. ”

“ As nature has formed them, the blood-sucking bats will make their attack indifferently, either upon man or large quadrupeds. There are a thousand proofs to be had in all the tropical regions of America. Every year animals are killed by the phyllostoma hastatum, not in hundreds, but in thousands. It is recorded that on one extensive cattle-farm several hundred head were killed in the short period of six months by the bats ”

“ Bats are not generally favorites, and are by many regarded with aversion. Their strange and rather uncomely forms are seen on wing only in the dim twilight, as they spend the day mostly in deserted buildings and gloomy caverns. In eastern countries, where such receptacles of the dead are common, bats are often found in sepulchers or catacombs, and are regarded as fit dwellers with desolation and death. There are many species, with enough variety in their appearance; and the study of their natural history softens prejudice and reveals much of interest in their structure and habits. ”

“ THERE are perhaps no animals which are less studied by scientific men than bats, and consequently there is little cause for surprise that popular ideas about these creatures are so erroneous. There are many educated men and women who do not know whether a bat is a mammal or a bird, and a man once asked me it it was not "a kind of insect." Even expert zoologists often confess that they cannot distinguish between the commoner species, and lamentably little is known about the distribution and habits, though bats occur in nearly every part of the British Isles. ”

“ From its habit of hiding, its night-flying, its uncouth motion, its mouse-like body and unfeathered wings, which are so unhandsome that artists have copied them when they wish to show demons, witches, dragons, harpies, and evil angels with wings, the poor bat has derived its unlucky reputation, and the general dislike with which it is regarded. In truth, there is scarcely any creature so frail, defenceless, harmless, friendly, gentle, and timid as a bat. ”

“ And it must be confessed that when seen against the light, flitting silently overhead, there is something weird in the Bat’s form, and this is no doubt the reason why, while angels of all kinds are represented with birds’ wings, those of Bats have, by universal consent, always been conferred upon demons, dragons, and similar uncanny creatures. ”

“ Colin Camber, the American authority, offered some very curious particulars in support of a theory to show that whereas snakes and scorpions have always been recognized as sacred by Voodoo worshippers, the real emblem of their unclean religion is the bat, especially the Vampire Bat of South America.
“He pointed out that the symptoms of one dying beneath the spell of an Obeah man are closely paralleled in the cases of men and animals who have suffered from nocturnal attacks of blood-sucking bats.” ”

“ The vampire bat, which roams by night like other bats, goes straight at the large animals it sees asleep, delicately opens a vein in the throat without waking them, and sucks their blood in long draughts, taking care, by fanning them with its wings, to lull them into a cool and balmy slumber. It does not, as you see, make a savage attack on its victim: it merely inflicts a bite like that of the leech, but the result may be death. ”

“ If, then, we keep in mind the habits of the bats, we shall comprehend that their habitations must be inexpressibly revolting to human beings, and shall the better understand the force of the prophecy that the idols shall be cast to the bats and the moles.
There is another, and a very forcible passage, in which the Bat is mentioned. In the apocryphal book of Baruch, the Bat is used as a lively image of something peculiarly repulsive and hateful. ”

“ Many people are afraid to have anything to do with them, and everyone is familiar with the old belief that, 63 given the opportunity, a bat will fly into one’s hair. Yet the bats that are so common in North America are weak and entirely harmless. Far from being harmful to man, they serve a most useful function in destroying various insects. The worst problem the bat presents is the habit some species have of using buildings as a place to sleep. ”

“ In this country there are various species, but none of them very large. They are generally innocent creatures, living in dark caverns and hidden places during the day, and sallying forth to feast upon insects by night. The little bats that we see flying about of a summer evening, are very amusing creatures in one respect; if you throw anything up near them, they will dive at it immediately,—​no doubt supposing it to be something to eat. A boy may throw up his cap, and the bat flies at it instantly, as if he would make a supper of it. ”

“ Insect-eating bats are prisoners of the air. Once on the wing they must remain in flight all night until they return to the dark caves where they sleep all day, suspended head downwards. Flying from dusk to dawn requires an enormous amount of energy for which a lot of food is required. One of these animals probably must eat about a third of its own weight in insects each night. ”

“ Most bats feed on insects which they catch on the wing; some of them eat fruit; and a few enjoy a bad name because they suck the blood of other animals. Of these last are the so-called vampire bats, respecting which it used to be said that they fanned their victim with their wings while they sucked its life's blood. Though it is quite true that horses and cattle in South America are attacked by some bats, this hideous tale is altogether fabulous. ”

“ Many other desert creatures, including certain 63 snakes and lizards and some spiders, depend upon insects for food. The body juices of the insects provide the all-important moisture—which these creatures can get from no other source. Bats, too, are insect eaters, spending the hours of darkness in seemingly aimless and erratic flight while foraging for moths and other night-flying insects that visit the light-colored blossoms of night-blooming plants.
Some species of insects may become so numerous that they threaten the very life of the plants on which they live. ”

“ Moreover, bats do not bring into houses any noxious insects, like bedbugs or lice, despite their bad reputation. They are unfortunately afflicted with numerous parasites, but none of them are of a kind to attack man. All bats are great drinkers, and twice a day skim over the nearest water, drinking copiously on the wing. Sometimes, where trout are large enough, bats fall victims to their drinking habits, being seized on the wing like [Pg 208] huge moths by leaping trout, as they approach the water to drink. ”

“ However, the intensity of bat calls has been largely neglected although intensity is a key factor determining echolocation range and interactions with other bats and prey. Differences in detection range, in turn, are thought to constitute a mechanism promoting resource partitioning among bats, which might be particularly important for the species-rich bat assemblages in the tropics. Here we present data on emitted intensities for 11 species from 5 families of insectivorous bats from Panamá hunting in open or background cluttered space or over water. ”

“ If a bat escaped from the net it would never again - 31 - strike it, for the animals are wonderfully accurate in flight and most expert dodgers. Even while in a cave, where hundreds of bats were in the air, they seldom flew against us, although we might often be brushed by their wings; and it was a most difficult thing to hit them with a bamboo switch. Their ability in dodging is without doubt a necessary development of their feeding habits for, with the exception of a few species, bats live exclusively upon insects and catch them in the air. ”

“ Bats resemble the ordinary field mouse in appearance, except for their large, expansive wings. They are mostly insectivorous, living almost exclusively on insects they catch while in flight, chewing their prey into the finest bits with their sharp teeth. A bat will eat enormous quantities of food between sunset and sunrise, and on the basis of only two full meals a night will consume an amount almost half its own weight. ”

“ But it is only fair to them (the bat family) to admit that the number of species which thus injure men and the larger animals is very small; and that, while all of our own bats, and most of those of other lands, are fierce devourers of insects, and use their sharp teeth for defense against their captors, there are many kinds, especially the larger (Roussettes, etc.) , which live almost wholly upon fruits, and are, moreover, quite good eating themselves. ”

“ Jules suggested.
“Exactly. Those are its prey. The bat lives on insects exclusively. All are food for its maw: hard-winged beetles, slender mosquitoes, plump moths, flying insects of all sorts; in fact, all the little winged foes of our cereals, vines, fruit-trees, woolen stuffs [26] —all those creatures of the air that come in the evening, attracted by our lighted rooms, and singe their wings in the flames of our lamps. Who would undertake to say how many insects bats destroy when they fly around a house? The game is so small, and the hunter is so hungry. ”

“ When it comes to personal habits, bats of all kinds are perhaps the most useful mammals that we have. No American bat eats anything but insects, and insects of the most disagreeable kind, such as cockroaches, mosquitoes, and June-bugs. A house-bat has been seen to eat twenty-one June-bugs in a single night ”

“ Within a few years considerable publicity has been given to the supposed possibility of utilizing bats to destroy mosquitoes and thus eliminate 602 603 malaria from infested areas. One or more bat houses have been built at San Antonio, Texas, for the purpose of assembling bats in large numbers, and many untenable claims have been put forth concerning the benefit to be derived from their services. ”

“ There are many kinds and varieties of bats, ranging in size from the flying foxes of the tropical world, with wings five feet in length, to the wood bat of North America, which is not over six inches long. These interesting friends of man are his greatest scavengers of the air. They are doing much to check the mosquitoes throughout the regions of the world, and in more civilized communities man makes shelters for them, that they may eradicate mosquitoes. ”

“ After the girl had been removed to a place of safety, the reptile was killed.
A Municipal Bat Roost.
The only municipal bat roost in the world was recently erected at San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to have an important part in the city fight against malaria and other diseases. The bat has been discovered by Doctor C. A. Campbell, of San Antonio, to be one of the greatest enemies of the mosquito, which is largely responsible for the spread of malarial and similar germs. ”

“ And yet the bona fide petting of bats would, in many countries, be the best remedy of the mosquito-plague. There are few parts of Eastern Arkansas where the utmost diligence in ditching and draining would abate the torment of the perennial gnat-swarms, and in many swamp-districts of Southern Mexico one might as well try to bar out rats with a rail-fence as gnats with a mosquito-bar, since the forty or fifty different varieties comprise several sizes that could slip through the meshes of a cambric handkerchief, while the largest kind would as easily bite through a flannel night-shirt. ”

“ GUANO (a Spanish word from the Peruvian huanu, dung) , the excrement of birds, found as large deposits on certain islands off the coast of Peru, and on others situated in the Southern ocean and off the west coast of Africa. The large proportions of phosphorus in the form of phosphates and of nitrogen as ammonium oxalate and urate renders it a valuable fertilizer. Bat’s guano, composed of the excrement of bats, is found in certain caves in New Zealand and elsewhere; it is similar in composition to Peruvian guano. (See Manures and Manuring.) ”

“ Also, the amount of guano growth varies with the years, for when insects are plentiful, bats gorge themselves and the guano deposits are much greater than in lean years when their food supply is low, sometimes to the extent that the bats will go elsewhere for one or two seasons, at which times there is no guano accumulation at all.
At one time, during an exploration of the cave some years ago, a scientist discovered the remains of a bat sticking out of the side of a stalagmite where it had undoubtedly fallen from its perch above, having perchance died of old age. ”

“ The Long-eared Bat flies very late in the evening, and indeed seems to continue its activity throughout the night; its food appears to consist to a great extent of the smaller moths, although other insects are by no means disdained. This species also soon becomes very tame and familiar; it will fly about the room, play with its fellows, and come fearlessly to take its food from the hand. ”

“ It is unfortunate that the average person has a deep prejudice against the Bat. Without looking or thinking for himself, he accepts a lot of absurd tales about the winged one, and passes them on and on, never caring for the injustice he does or the pleasure he loses. I have loved the Bat ever since I came to know him; that is, all my mature life. He is the climax of creation in many things, highly developed in brain, marvellously keen in senses, clad in exquisite fur and equipped, above all, with the crowning glory of flight. ”

“ Each Party shall prohibit the deliberate capture, keeping or killing of bats except under permit from its competent authority.
2. Each Party shall identify those sites within its own area of jurisdiction which are important for the conservation status, including for the shelter and protection, of bats. It shall, taking into account as necessary economic and social considerations, protect such sites from damage or disturbance. In addition, each Party shall endeavour to identify and protect important feeding areas for bats from damage or disturbance. ”