Bat Appreciation Month

When most people think of October, they think of all things spooky. Often included in the spooky things are bats, but I don’t think they get the full attention they deserve. October is bat appreciation month, so let’s get into some bat facts.

I am going to start off by saying that I am learning about bats as I write this, and I am in no way claiming to be an expert in chiropterology (the study of bats). 

This first fact is wild, so get ready: bats can swim. I am not lying to you. According to the Smithsonian, “Observations by naturalists in the field seem to support the fact that some bats swim in stressful situations.” This is not a typical behavior that bats exhibit, but they are considered great swimmers within the animal kingdom.

According to The Nature Conservancy, bats consume their body weight in insects every night—this includes those pesky mosquitoes that are constantly biting at you in the summer months. Without bats, the insect population would increase exponentially, creating an imbalance in the surrounding environment.

If you have ever paid attention in any science class, you would know that bats are nocturnal. If they are only awake at night, how are they able to see the bugs they are eating? Well my friends, let me blow your mind. Bats use something called echolocation to navigate their dark environment. According to National Geographic, bats emit sound waves from their mouths and noses that bounce off their surroundings and return to their ears. By using this feedback, bats are able to navigate through the dark with ease.

Something you may not learn about in science class is the sexual habits of the short-nosed fruit bat, specifically the females. According to National Geographic, the female short-nosed fruit bat is the only mammal (other than humans) to regularly engage in oral sex or fellatio. This type of bat performs this action in order to prolong the sexual encounter thus increasing the probability of offspring.

On the topic of offspring, let’s look at what the life of a young bat looks like. Bats typically have one pup per year; this pup is closely nursed by the mother and clings to her for around four to five weeks until they learn how to fly. If disturbed, bats will abandon their young. If this happens, the young bat is not likely to survive. If all goes well in a young bat’s life, they have the ability to live for about thirty years in the right conditions according to WesternPests.com.

You may now be thinking, “I never see bats, so they must not live around here.” Wrong. According to the Smithsonian, “[Bats] are found throughout the world except for certain oceanic islands, the Arctic and Antarctic.” That includes Geneseo, people! The State University of New York at Geneseo even has “Bat Guidelines” stating that “Bats may enter campus buildings at any time but occurrence seems to be more prevalent from late summer to fall.” The main concern about bats in these guidelines is consistently about the possibility of rabies, however low it may be. Looking again to the Smithsonian, they say that “In the United States the rate of [rabies] occurrence is so small, barely a fraction of a percent, that there is very little danger to humans.” If you don’t mess with the bats, typically they will not mess with you.

Well this article was a wild, bat-filled ride. I hope you learned something about bats—I sure did. When you are putting up your spooky decorations, remember to consider the interesting lives of bats.