Let’s face it: Bats have an image problem. Since the time of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, these stealthy shadows have been tied up with images of the dark and demonic, of vampiric seduction, of blood-sucking and essence-drinking. They’ve been villified as vectors for rabies and Ebola, deemed nighttime nuisances, and even inspired the very specific fear of one flying into your hair and getting stuck. “It’s hard to come across a bat in a non-terrifying situation,” says Amanda Bevan, urban bat project leader at the nonprofit Organization for Bat Conservation.
That’s a pity, because bats are wondrous. There are yellow bats and red bats, bats that slurp flowers and bats that drain cows, bats no bigger than a bumblebee and bats with wingspans longer than a person is tall. Bats that scarf down scorpions thanks to a honey badger-esque immunity to venom; bats that make their living swooping for fish off the coast of Mexico; and fruit bats in the forests of Indonesia whose males produce breastmilk.
In fact, despite their seeming elusiveness, bats comprise the second-most diverse group of mammals after rodents. One-fifth to one-quarter of all mammals are bats. Or, as Bevan puts it: “There are so many bats, and we know so little.”
Read more at Smithsonian
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