![]() ![]() ![]() You may think a diet of blood implies a grisly personality. The bats also dont suck the blood they lap it as it oozes from the wound. Vampires normally bite their victims on the body or an extremity, rarely in the neck. They do feed on blood, though it is far more likely that they extract it from livestock than humans. Vampire bats live in Central and South America. They dont live in Chesapeake Country either. Vampire bats dont even exist in the region of Transylvania in Europe where Stoker set the tale of Dracula. Vampire legends are, of course, nonsense. In fact, many consider the raccoon an appealing creature. Yet these animals dont suffer the poor reputation of the bat. ![]() Skunks, raccoons and foxes are rated higher as rabies carriers by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Instead, the humans were infected when they ignorantly picked up a sick bat with their bare hands the bat bit them in self-defense. The victims had not been attacked by rabid bats. The most recent Maryland death occurred in 1976. In the last half century, only 40 people have died in the United States as the result of contracting rabies from a bat. Dog attacks and lightning strikes take more lives. If a swarm of hundreds of bats could so easily avoid Limpert, even the most bat-paranoid among us need not fear that a lone bat will get tangled in our hair.īats, like all mammals, can transmit rabies, but the incidence of bat-to-human transmission is very low. They have such amazing navigation skills! The bats came pouring out of the opening right past my face. There is definitely some sort of organization to it. ∺ bat swarm appears chaotic, but it isnt. I was standing right in front of the mine as over 500 bats rushed past and swirled about me, she said. Maryland Department of Natural Resources bat expert Dana Limpert seconds Browns observation, drawing on her experience at an old iron mine during a bat swarm. ∺ bats ability to echolocate is so acute that it can detect objects as small as the width of a human hair, says Andy Brown, senior naturalist at Battle Creek Cypress Swamp Sanctuary. Bats can determine an objects shape, size, distance and even texture by these echoes. Just as dolphins and whales echolocate in the ocean, bats do it in the air. About 70 percent of the worlds bats (including all that live in Chesapeake Country) also echolocate.Īnimals that echolocate make high-pitched sound pulses through their noses or mouths and listen for the echoes returning from the surrounding environment. They are far from being blind as a bat. No bats have poor eyesight, while some (such as fruit-eating bats) possess eyesight far better than ours, especially at night. One of the most fascinating things about bats is their ability to navigate. Disturbing, no doubt, to the people who fear them. In fact, bats are more closely related to humans than to mice. Perhaps opinion would be different if we learned what fantastic creatures bats are and how they benefit us humans.įirst, bats and mice are not closely related. A horrified look froze her face, and her hands flew to her coifed head as she exclaimed, Oh! Arent you afraid theyll get tangled in your hair?īats are also reviled as flying mice, blind and a likely source of rabies. One pert, well-educated coworker got quite agitated when I told her of our bat-watching routine. A host of vampire horror films perpetuated the myth, as did the popular 1960s soap opera, Dark Shadow.Īll this bad rap translates into abundant misconception. A spider elicits my scream almost every time.īram Stokers Dracula, published in 1897, fed the human fear of bats, doing the creatures no favors. Id like to be able to feel superior because I have no fear of bats, snakes or mice. Dont all these animals make appearances in Halloween legendry? Fear of bats is primal, some psychologists believe, like the natural revulsion many people have to spiders, snakes and mice. In our family, bats are not the villains theyre often made out to be. The creature that zips through Halloween legendry bears little resemblance to bats that fascinated my family on warm summer nights. My children and I lie on our backs, fascinated by the aerial show above us until it becomes too dark to see. Bet theyre catching plenty of mosquitoes tonight, exclaims Emily. Great! Look at how many bugs they are eating. ![]() Because of their stockier silhouettes and the unpredictable flight patterns, the bats cannot be mistaken for the sleek, recently departed purple martins. They zip this way and then zoom that way. Both bats flutter erratically above us, rapidly changing directions. The bat returns a minute later, this time accompanied by another. Tommy rushes over to join us in the hammock. Theres one! shouts Emily as she points to the bat fluttering against the now nearly steel-gray sky. ![]()
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