As
Hallowe’en fast approaches, we find our attention drawn, time and again, to one
of Mother Nature’s creeeeeepiest creatures! Many a Hallowe’en T.V. show, book
or other image opens with the spectacle of a worn out, run down dilapidated
abandoned old house with a huge, full moon hanging over the turrets. Sometimes,
a witch on a broomstick swoops on past, her form silhouetted against the moon.
Occasionally, a few ghosties peer out of the broken windows or fly out of the
house into the darkened sky. It’s all part of the spooky fun.
But no
matter what else is there, almost inevitably you’ll see those little black,
jagged winged, squeaky little flapping critters flip past. They’re supposed to
inspire us to run, screaming into the blackened night, or at least give a good
shiver down our spines.
They
are, of course, bats.
They
may have gotten they’re creeeeeeepy reputation, in part, from some of their
number who are known as “vampire bats”. They have a recurring role in the story
of the spooky buck-toothed guy from Transylvania who only came out at night to
steal other people’s blood for a snack. How grotesque! In some versions of the
story, when he’s in danger, he can turn himself into a bat and take off before
you can move.
But,
really, the bat gets short-changed in that story. For one thing, contrary to
popular myth, vampire bats don’t suck blood. They create a wound and the lap up
the blood that comes out. OK. I grant you that is a wee bit creepy. But it
seems a little less so, somehow, when you realize they only take a teaspoon or
two worth of blood. Never enough to endanger their hosts. Just enough to create
a nasty sore.
Now
here’s something kind of amazing. Their saliva has an anticoagulation agent in
it. That just means that when their spit enters their host, it makes the blood
a little thinner so it will keep running so the bat can get enough nourishment.
Now doctors are discovering they may be able to use this agent to help heart
patients and stroke patients to avoid clots. Not only are bats not creepy, they
may actually save lives! Want to know some more about bats?
·
There’s a huge cave in Texas called the ‘Bracken
Bat Cave’. It’s the biggest known one in the world, and is the home to some 20
million bats!
·
The biggest bat in the world is the Flying Fox,
with a wing-span of about six feet. Can you imagine that guy coming at you?
·
The smallest known bat is the Bumblebee Bat.
This one is roughly the size of (surprised?) a bumblebee.
·
These little creatures help us keep our insect
population in hand. A single bat can consume 600 bugs in one hour. A colony of
bats can put away over a ton of bugs each year!
·
Remember those vampire bats? Mostly their hosts
on horses or cows, but occasionally they feel like chicken. To do this, they’ve
developed the most devious and impressive trick of pretending to be a chick and
snuggling up against mama chicken in order to get a shot at her legs!
·
Bats plant lots of plant life by dropping seeds
from fruit they munch on. About 95% of all reforestation of tropical forests is
a result of bats dropping seeds.
·
Bats use echolocation. They send out a sound and wait to see how
long it takes to bounce back in order to determine how far off an object is.
Most of them send out this sound through their mouths, but some can actually
holler through their nostrils.
·
Civil War soldiers used gun powder made from bat
droppings.
·
It is true that bats sleep upside down. They do
this so they can fly off as quickly as possible should the need arise. And the
blood doesn’t even rush to their heads!
One morning my Grandmother, who
lived on farm deep in the countryside, woke up and found her bedroom window
pane full of little bats, all snuggled up to each other. She didn’t panic and scream hysterically, as
I probably would have. Instead, she simply grabbed her broomstick and poked the
little creatures out of there and let them fly, unharmed, back into the forest
from which they had come. Possibly she knew something I didn’t know.
We
need these little guys!
Don’t
forget to tune in next week for another one of Mother Nature’s creeeeeeepiest
creatures! Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Comments