Bats are also associated with Halloween as being scary. Sure, they are furry, and they fly around after dark so we can guess that they are there, but we cannot see them. Ooo, spooky eh?
Many years ago, I did help do some bat counting where nets were strung up across trails and openings to catch them so we could count and identify them. What I remember most about that evening was that when we put our flashlights on to take down the nets, we could see the bats flying very closely all around us, but in the dark we had no idea how close they were.
Bats have been given a bad rap over the years as “blood suckers, hair grabbers and disease carriers.” As such they have been feared and persecuted around the world, but humans should be thankful for bat services such as eating agricultural pests, pollination, seed dispersal and ecosystem health.
Fear of bats is often based on traditional misunderstandings. That bats suck human blood is a myth perpetuated by fairy stories and movies about vampires and Count Dracula. Blood-sucking bats live in Central and South America and suck blood from birds or smaller mammals.
A more realistic concern is that bats could carry rabies. True – some do but most do not. Humans are more likely to catch rabies from a rabid dog since bats like to stay clear of humans.
Bats are known to carry other diseases, but these are usually not transmitted to humans. More likely the diseases are passed on through bites to other smaller animals that may be consumed by humans – as seems to be the case with the origin of COVID-19.
Recent research suggests bats have developed the ability to carry a large variety of diseases but are immune to them. It seems that bat genes have evolved to confer immunity, and the bats appear to live with a constant antiviral capacity.
Good potential news for our local bats. Bats around Lillooet, B.C. seem to have avoided being infected by the white-nose fungus that has caused severe losses in bats elsewhere. Scientists are presently studying these populations to try to find out why. Apparently, the microbiome on the wings of bats seems to play some role in preventing White-nose Syndrome.
Researchers have discovered the wing microbiome contains many bacteria and fungi (some unknown to science). They have created an experimental ‘probiotic cocktail’ from the Lillooet bat wings and have been testing it on populations of bats in B.C. and Washington State with “encouraging results.”
