Bats Are Essential
…to both Halloween and many ecosystems. They keep insects under control, pollinate plants, and disperse seeds. Seventy-five species of bats are endangered or critically endangered due to the usual: loss of habitat, climate change, disease (in North America white nose syndrome has killed huge numbers and is still spreading), and hunting for food and medicinal use in Southeast Asia.
And Vampire Bats? The species, living in Central and South America, mostly feed on blood from farm animals and birds. And the bite doesn’t kill. The danger comes from the possibility that the bat carries rabies.
Only a small percentage of bats carry rabies. Raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, and cats and dogs are a much bigger rabies threat to humans, although since the advent of widespread vaccinations for pets, there have been very few cases of human rabies in the United States.
You can see my last year’s Halloween bat post here.
20 responses to “Bats Are Essential”
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- November 6, 2015 -
- April 17, 2016 -
I try to like them….. 🙂
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I feel that way about rats…if they ate mosquitos or cockroaches instead of garbage I might like them better!
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Such a lovely bat
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I’m not sure many people would characterize bats as “lovely”…thanks!
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I’ve never really had a problem with bats. I’m not sure I ever realized I was suppose to actually. I think they’re beautiful creatures and love to watch them fly overhead.
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I agree…they are wonderful in flight.
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They’re beautiful. I was just walking home from the grocery store and there were dozens of them flying over me. Some were flying pretty low. It was definitely a sight to behold. As far as I’m concerned lovely is a perfectly suitable word to describe them :).
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Lovely freewheeling bat, nice expressive drawing and color.
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I’m doing much better with painting when I’m just fooling around. No pressure!
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I love this!! 😃Your bat looks awesome. And the post is so intriguing it made me look them up. I might have to doodlewash a bat now!! 😉👍🏻
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Do it!
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Such adorable (and useful) ears! I love bats, and they are suffering so much from WNS here where I live, this summer they were a sadly rare sighting. (We had terrible mosquitos too, and every time I spotted a bat, I cheered!)
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They are all around in the city, but you can especially see them in Central Park at dusk. And yes, love those ears!
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I love bats…in real life and your drawing! They’re helpful – both in what you mentioned and also bat guano makes for excellent fertilizer!
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That’s true; I didn’t mention it but I remember reading about it.
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I love bats. I love to see them in the summer at dusk. We’ve got a bat house and I think bat homeowners. Love what you did with this drawing.
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Thanks…bat houses are important.
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Thank you for the information about bats. The’ve been given such a bad rap and they are so important to our fragile ecosystem.
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