Bat rap: 31 reasons why bats should be valued, not vilified – Source

15. Bats are not actually blind, but they are equipped with a special navigation system – called echolocation – that uses waves of sound to help them understand their surroundings in addition to using their eyesight – which is excellent.

16. Did you know that Fort Collins is a lynchpin in bat conversation and study? A North American Bat Monitoring Program through the USGS is centered in Fort Collins. This group tracks bat populations and monitors for threats like white-nose syndrome, a fungus that attacks and kills bats, leading to population decline. https://www.usgs.gov/centers/fort-collins-science-center/science/north-american-bat-monitoring-program-nabat

17. There are 19 species of bats in Colorado.

18. It is rare to see a bat. They are small, fly and eat only at night, and avoid people. But don’t be fooled; there are many bats along the Front Range, including those roosting in attics, buildings and backyards and other environments. If you are out at dusk, you may also see bats taking flight for the evening.

19. While bats can become infected with rabies and spread the disease, the belief that all bats carry rabies is not true. Only a small percentage of wild bats have rabies, with expert estimates as low as a fraction of 1% (https://www.si.edu/spotlight/bats/batfacts). Rabies is fatal to bats – bats die from this infection like all other mammals, within a few days, so they do not live and spread the disease indefinitely.

20. Never pick up or touch a wild bat if you see one; this could be an indication that it is sick.

21. If you want to attract bats to your area to help eat mosquitoes and other bugs, you can hang a roosting box, or a bat house. https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1269/

22. Not all cultures villainize bats. The Aztec culture celebrated a bat-like god called Mictlantecuhtli, their God of the Dead.

23. The scientific name for bats is Chiroptera, which means “hand wing.” This is because bats have a thumb and four fingers that are connected by skin that make up each wing.

24. Scientists believe bats first appeared more than 50 million years ago. Bats are not rodents and not even related to the rodent family. They are more closely related to horses, cattle and whales than they are to humans or rodents.

25. White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that scientists started to track in 2006. Since then, it has killed at least 7 million bats. Bats with the syndrome develop a fungus on their nose, ears and wing membranes, weakening their immune system and interrupting their winter hibernation, depleting their fat reserves.

26. Bats are also threatened by disruptions to their habitat, including pesticides, contaminated water, wind turbines, solar energy panels and farms, open space development, and light pollution, as well as changes to agricultural practices that diminish food source diversity in their food supply.

27. During cold weather, bats either hibernate or fly to warmer climates.

28. It is illegal to own a bat as a pet because they are protected species, but you can encourage them to take roost in your yard.

29. You can help bats by using only natural pesticides in your garden and yard, because pesticides can harm bats and kill their food source – insects. Grow native plants and flowers that bloom at night to provide them with food, such as evening primrose, moonflowers, nicotiana and honeysuckle. Leave them a source of water to drink, too, such as a birdbath.

30. When you’re in natural areas, stay out of mines or caves where bats sleep and hibernate. When they are disrupted during hibernation, it forces them to use their fat reserves and makes it more difficult to survive a winter.

31. Got bats in your belfry? Bats are protected species and cannot be legally “harassed, entrapped, harmed or killed” in their natural environment or in roosting places in manufactured structures, such as a house or barn. For more information about how to exclude bats from structures – humanely, and ensuring that baby bats do not die if separated from their mothers – visit https://cnhp.colostate.edu/cbwg/excluding-bats-from-buildings/. (Killing bats roosting in an area won’t solve the problem; more bats will find that location. The only effective way to remove unwanted bats is to go through a process of excluding them from entering the structure.)