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Bats Are So Misunderstood
People believe that bats are blind, but are people blind to the truth about bats?
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Lavoie holds a dead brown bat Photo by Tiffany Richards |
He sleeps in a corner of the dark desolate room. He knows nothing of where he is and the world he once knew is only a distant memory. He peacefully sleeps in his current home unaware of the footsteps slowly creeping up the stairs. Screams pierce his ears as he jolts out of his current state in terror. The small woman screams in hysteria at what she sees. He flies around the room desperately trying to escape. In his haste, he bumps into the screaming woman. She attempts to hit him and he bites her in defense. The bat flies out of the house into the world away from a home and away from hope.
Mother bats abandon their male teenage sons during the summer, Kathy Lavoie says, biology professor and bat expert(Chiroptologist) at SUNY Plattsburgh. Female mothers keep only their daughters and leave their sons to fend for themselves in the wild. They keep their female bats to teach them where to migrate or hibernate. “Females are the experienced ones,” Lavoie says. Male bats then have to seek shelter wherever they can find it.
Bats often live in trees, caves, mines, or buildings, but sometimes they set up camp in someone's house. “A lot of people have bats in their attic,” Lavoie says. It's good for people to get the bats out of their home because their guano (bat feces) can build up and cause damage to the home.
Jim Burgess from Nuisance Wildlife Control agrees with Lavoie. “They live and eat in the walls and attics,” he says. The urine and guano can get into the living space if it's not taken care of. After using a net to first capture the bat, pest control will access the area, remove the guano and urine; then disinfect and deodorize. “If people have had any contact with the bat, they should contact the Department of Health,” Burgess says. People are usually scared when they realize there is a bat in their home. Burgess says he's had to calm people down at times.
The discovery of a bat can create a scare in humans. They are active at night, they live in caves and they look like flying rats, David Gross says, curator of the Wildlife center in Tupper Lake, NY.
Bats are a symbol of good luck in China Photo by Tiffany Richards |
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Bats have even been reported to have rabies. Although, only one tenth of a percent of bats carry rabies, says Lavoie. There are also few cases of rabies reported. Rabies are mainly caused by unvaccinated cats and dogs. Bats can get rabies by being in contact with other animals with the disease. It is usually transmitted through saliva after having contact with another animal. According to CDC, rabies isn't traditionally a human disease. Rabies is a disease that occurs more in animals than in humans. The symptoms take time to show up. “It's a very unusual disease. It takes up to six months to develop symptoms,” Lavoie says. This disease is 100 percent fatal but can be treated. “The vaccine is very effective.” According to CDC, the vaccine consists of three shots for people who have never been vaccinated. It consists of five shots if the person has never been vaccinated but has rabies.
“Hollywood makes them out to be sinister and they're not.”
Bats do have the perception of being fearsome. Yet, Lavoie assures there is no harm from these creatures. “When they're flying around in your house, they look a lot bigger than they are.” These creatures weigh as much as a nickel and they have soft fur, she says. “Hollywood makes them out to be sinister and they're not.” When a bat is in a person's home, it might bump into them. It attacks if someone attempts to grab it or if it's cornered. “They're just trying to get out of the way. If they bump you, I assure you it's an accident.”
Bats are also known to be good luck symbols in Asia, Lavoie says. In China, there is a five bat Wu-Fu symbol that means five blessings. Wu means five and fu means good luck and bat. The five bats represent five symbols which are health, wealth, long life, good luck and tranquility.
Bats have negative views against them. They can carry rabies, people fear them and male bats, as a part of a natural process, are left behind by their mothers. Yet bats are animals that live in parts of the Northeast and all parts of the world. They live and breed like all other living creatures. People are more likely to run into bats this time of the year, Lavoie says. “Flying into your house and attacking people is completely erroneous.”
Bat Plague Sweeps the Northeast
Millions of bats have died due to a new disease that has grown in recent years. According to the “Bat Conservation International” website, millions of bats of six species have died across the northeast since the disease first broke out in February 2006.
The symptoms include a white fungus that grows on their face and wings. Bats have been found dead in their caves after the disease caused them to lose energy and starve throughout the winter.
“There were 3000 bats that lived in a cave in Vermont this winter and only three survived,” says Lavoie. Scientists don't know how the white-nose syndrome started, and the rapid spread of the disease makes it hard for scientists to find a fast solution.