LOCAL NATURE

A Summer of Bats
BY ERIC DINERSTEIN
Contributing Writer

ILLUSTRATION BY TRUDY NICHOLSON

Contributing Artist

H
alloween comes early to Cabin
John: for the summer months the
next three columns will focus on
some of the most fascinating animals to
inhabit our night skies.

Welcome to the world of bats. For some

readers, this will be your first introduction to
these remarkable creatures, among the most
highly specialized of vertebrates. For the Hoary Bat
more hesitant reader, this is an opportunity
to shed your bat phobia, as I did, when I
morphed from a young man squeamish Bat diversity is astounding—in the
about bats to one who gained appreciation tropics you can find in the same
for these fascinating, intelligent mammals. forest: bats that catch fish with
Appreciation turned to rapture when I their feet; bats with long tongues that,
held in my hands the adorable Honduran like hummingbirds, feed on flower nectar;
white bat, which looks like a bat in a clown bats that eat figs, frogs, birds, katydids,
costume. This bat and other fruit-eaters lizards, and even other bats. I won’t mention
became the focus of my Ph.D. field research vampires, three species that feed exclusively HOARY, HOARY NIGHT
in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. on the blood of mammals or birds, except Sometimes children are handicapped by
to say that they are highly intelligent awful names. It’s the curse of clueless parents.
Once you move past the Dracula creatures with complex social lives. As flying The same phenomenon happens when
propaganda, bats have a lot to like about agriculturalists, bats are essential for so many oblivious naturalists bestow an unfortunate
them: for example, they are the only tropical fruits whose flowers they pollinate name on an otherwise beautiful species. A
mammals that have mastered flight. Sure, or whose fruits and seeds they disperse, such case in point: in 1796, on a collecting trip
there are “flying” squirrels and “flying” as the progenitor of the banana, the agave to America, the French naturalist Palisot de
lemurs, but those mammals can only glide that gives us tequila, and delicious fruits like Beauvois dubbed a handsome bat covered
through the forest from one tree to another figs and papayas. in dense fur and displaying long narrow
for a few hundred meters. Bats fly rings wings that he had discovered a “hoary bat”
around them, and some migrate from here to Bats also serve as flying pest control agents, (Atalpha cinerea). The name stuck, and
Central America. Bats are also 1st runner-up consuming tons of flying insects that though infelicitous in truth, it is accurate.
to rodents for the title of most diverse group could destroy food crops, such as the corn Hoary is a kind of fur where dark bands end
of mammals. There are about 4,000 species borer moths they intercept in the air as the in white tips, giving the animal that sports
of rodents and about 1,400 species of bats. moths move north from Mexico to the U.S. such pelage a hoary, or frosted appearance. A
Even so, about one out of every five species grain belt. The bats that live near us in the better descriptor might have been “tree bark
of mammal is a bat. In addition, from an Washington, D.C. area, the focus of these bat,” as its fur blends so perfectly against
evolutionary perspective, the giant flying columns, eat only insects, from beetles to the trunk of a tree or branch that predators
foxes and smaller fruit bats of Asia are closer flies to gnats to mosquitos. So give bats, the cannot spot it.
to primates than they are to rodents. Think most remarkable creatures in nature you
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
of bats as our very distant cousins. may once have found frightening, a chance.

10 [Link] June 2022

SUMMER OF BATS
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
funnel-shaped and open. (If you are looking All migratory species face great risks during
for bats that truly resemble dogs, look at the transit. Wind turbines and the energy from
Hoary bats, and their three close cousins, faces of the fruit bats of Africa, Asia, and wind they harvest are essential if we are to
the red, yellow, and chestnut bats, have the South Pacific. Bats in this group don’t move to 100% renewable energy. But where
faces like tiny dogs, with a dog-like muzzle echolocate but instead have developed large wind turbines occur along migration routes,
and pointed ears. If the hoary bat’s coat eyes, excellent night vision, and a keen sense which they often do, as they are located on
does not have sufficient aesthetic appeal, of smell.) ridges typically used by birds and bats for
please Google images of the red, yellow, and increased lift or navigation, collision by
chestnut bats. I have held all three of these Female hoary bats weigh slightly less than an bats or birds can be common with tens of
species in my hand, and they are surely ounce (females are 40% heavier than males) thousands killed each year. Hoary bats have
among the most beautiful of mammals. The and have a wingspan of about 15 inches. a higher mortality rate from wind turbine
red bat is a crimson fellow, the yellow bat is a Remarkably, when its wings are folded accidents than any other North American
mixture of gold and saffron, and the chestnut under its body, it can fit in the palm of your bat. One theory is that exhausted migrating
bat’s fur is a lustrous reddish-brown. hand. But don’t let that small size fool you. bats mistake wind turbines for trees upon
These bats are long-distance migrants, here which they can roost.
All four of these insect-eating bats can be with us for the summer or traveling much
found in our region. Their very small eyes further north into Canada to roost before Watch for these bats as you look to the night
are a result of adaptations for echolocation heading back south to spend the winter in sky. If the wings seem long and narrow
(bat sonar) to navigate through the forest the southwestern United States or Central it is most likely a hoary bat, or maybe its
or pick off bugs on the wing. Imagine a America. Individuals tracked with telemetry cousin the red bat, out for a night of filling
Chihuahua that finds its way around or to devices have been known to fly 25 miles a its mouth with moths to prepare for the
its food bowl by sending out signals from night. Hoary bats are widespread in North upcoming trip north to Canada or south to
its mouth and listening for the echo to find America and even occur in Hawaii, one of Costa Rica. VN
objects. Over time, its eyeballs would shrink, the few land-based mammals that reached
too, but maybe its ears would become more that archipelago.

June 2022 The Village News 11