For many years, I have watched a huge number of bats fly out of the third-story window of our old dairy barn during the summer.
It's a nightly ritual. As evening approaches, a few little, brown bats start emerging from the open window high above. There's one, then three, then five, then a dozen. It's like a steady parade as the little animals loosen their upside down grips and venture into the approaching darkness.
When the nightly feeding time arrives, a multitude of the strange, little creatures head out to fill their bellies on insects. They dip and dive high above the backyard, eating hundreds of mosquitoes, moths, wasps and other insects.
Bats are very beneficial to man, but for some reason, they seem to have a bad reputation. It may be because they are nocturnal animals; you know, creatures of the night. They're associated with the dark forces of evil, vampires, drinking blood, biting babies and such, but actually, they're quite harmless.
Years ago, when I was crawling around in Knox Cave up near Schoharie with a group of college friends, there were literally hundreds of bats clinging to the ceiling of some of the deep chambers. As our spelunking adventure came to an end, the great nightly exodus of bats began. It was nothing like the immense clouds of bats that leave the giant caverns in the southwest, but there was a steady line of the dark brown creatures that continued into the night.
It's interesting that bats mate in the fall but their eggs are not fertilized until spring. Female bats in the northeast usually give birth to two pups, which are born hairless and with their eyes closed. Yes, bats have eyes and can see. But they also have a type of radar that allows them to lock onto a target during feeding maneuvers.
Colonies of bats nurture their young for about two weeks under their mother's wings. By three weeks, they are able to fly and by roughly nine weeks, they can feed on their own.
Bats hibernate when the snow and freezing cold of our upstate winters set in each year. There certainly aren't many insects flying around, so Mother Nature does her thing.
Clusters of bats migrate to a number of large caves in New York and "sleep" through the winter. Often, 200-300 bats will cluster onto a one-foot section of the cavern's roof. This makes them very susceptible to disturbances and diseases.
Recently it's been discovered that huge numbers of bats are dying from an unknown disease biologists are referring to as White-nose Syndrome. People have found dead bats with a white fungus around their noses on cavern floors. This has killed off whole colonies, too, as they are actually starving to death during the winter. Biologist from many states are studying these bats, hoping to find the source of the problem.
Most of you probably rank bats somewhere among snakes and spiders, but they're not that bad. Of course you shouldn't handle them if they get into your house because you'll probably need rabies shots. I've always found a tennis racquet to be an effective tool, though. A bat's radar seems to pass right through the strings, but the bat doesn't. It's a simple solution to a minor problem.
Remember, that little, furry bat isn't trying to get into your hair as he dives around your campfire at night. He's just trying to help with all those pesky mosquitoes that seem to like you so much.
Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star. E-mail him at robrockway@hotmail.com.
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