By Kevin Andros, Environmental Educator

​

While looking for potential themes for a June Naturalist Note I came across an awesome bat fact that inspired me. Bats return to where they were born to give birth just like sea turtles with beaches and some amphibians with vernal pools! This is the time of year where bats have their babies. They usually only have a single baby a year and bat babies are called “pups”. Unfortunately most people get the wrong idea when it comes to bats. There is a stereotype widespread in the media that bats are an icon of dark and evil. Whether it be the vampiric association, fear of diseases, or the classic bat stuck in the hair myth, bats are not something to be feared. At the end of the day they are ecologically beneficial, incredibly cool, and pretty adorable.

With the biggest media representation of bats being blood sucking vampires that live in caves (I don’t really think Batman counts but that is a story for another Naturalist Note), it is easy to see where some predisposition towards bats comes from. A damp dark cave and feasting on blood makes most people a bit queasy. Three out of the nine species of bat that live in Connecticut don’t even live in caves, rather they are solitary and roost in trees. Only a single species of vampire bat that eats blood has been seen in the US, and only the southernmost part of Texas. The few species of vampire bat, which exist in Mexico and South America, don’t technically suck blood. They make small bites on large mammals and lick up the blood from the wounds. While it is a bit gruesome there is no need to worry as this amazing feeding strategy is seldom utilized on humans. 

Without a doubt the biggest qualm people have with bats is rabies. However, it is important to know the stats. Only around 1% of bats have rabies and some studies have found positive cases in 1 in 200 bats. Assuming every bat you see has rabies is like assuming everyone from the US has red hair since, in reality, around 2% of the population are redheads. You should be proactive after a potential bat exposure but bats as a whole are not any more disease riddled than other wild mammals. 

There are many benefits to having bats around but there are many threats to their populations. Of the nine Connecticut bat species the silver-haired bat, eastern red bat, and hoary bat are species of special concern. The little brown bat, northern long-eared bat, eastern small-footed bat, Indiana bat, and tri-colored bat are endangered on a state level. White Nose Syndrome was introduced to Connecticut in 2008 and is one of the key reasons for this. WNS is a fungal infection that spreads like wildfire in cave bats since they nest in colonies. It directly harms bats by causing them to wake up more frequently during hibernation. This uses up their fat storage before winter is over leading to starvation. Bats aren’t doomed but it will take a lot of work to get bats back to their former population levels. More bats means more pest control for local farmers which reduces pesticide needs. It even means more ecotourism which promotes protection of the environment. Some bats are even pollinators! Bat guano has been used since the 13th century and modern scientists have even studied it to look at human’s effect on the environment. Giant guano deposits can act like tree rings by showing the history of the world around them. Guano was commonly used to make gunpowder. The Confederate Army had “mines” for the stuff! By far the most important role of guano in human history has been fertilizer. It provides high levels of nitrogen that many plants need and the chitin from digested insects is great food for symbiotic fungi. 

I hope you have learned something new about bats or maybe you will look at them in a different light going forward. I am going to leave you with some quick bat facts to think of the next time you see one of the world’s only flying mammals. 

• You can not get rabies from bat guano

• There are over 1300 bat species across the world

• Bats aren’t blind. They have good eyesight but their echolocation is better for hunting

• 70% of bats eat primarily insects but there are also species that eat fruit, frogs, or even fish

• Bats don’t dive bomb people and get caught in your hair, they are swooping after all the tasty insects above you

• The little brown bat can eat 1200 mosquitos in a single hour