On Halloween, Tell Someone the Truth About Bats!

Although it isn’t likely you'll see a bat on Halloween, this time of year offers nature-lovers a chance to educate people about these misunderstood creatures!

Here are a few facts to share about bats:

* Bats are beneficial animals that pollinate plants, disperse seeds, and control insect populations.
* Northwest bats are mostly insect eaters, catching them as them in flight.
* Bats are not blind. They rely on echolocation to locate things at night, detecting obstacles as fine as human hair.
* Bats are more closely related to primates than to rodents.  Recent research has shown that flying foxes (a type of bat), primates, and flying lemurs share a unique brain organization.
* Bats are no more susceptible to rabies than squirrels or any other wild animal.
* Like dolphins, most bats communicate and navigate with high-frequency sounds.  Using sound alone, bats can “see” everything but color, and in total darkness they can detect obstacles as fine as a human hair.
* Bats roost and rest during summer days in tree hollows, caves, sheds, attics, and bat houses.
* In winter, bats may migrate hundreds of miles to hibernate in an place where temperatures are constantly above freezing – caves and old mine shafts are important refuges.
* In our area, bats hibernate in caves or abandoned buildings during the winter, surviving on fat reserves, or they migrate to warmer climates.
* Bats that are disturbed during hibernation can lose as much as 30 days of fat reserves, often resulting in starvation.
* Female bats have only one young a year.  Mating occurs in the fall, before hibernation.  Young are born in the spring.
* Bat fossils date back approximately 50 million years.