Friday, August 29, 1997
Bats make annual appearance downtown
By TANYA EISERER Staff Writer
Judy Godfrey might just grab a bucket and shovel and pick up
some nitrogen-rich bat guano this weekend.
"I've been tempted to go scoop up the guano and put it
on my plants," said Godfrey, executive director of the Museums
of Abilene in the Grace Cultural Center. "It's a real rich
(fertilizer)."
Godfrey said a colony of bats that has made its home in the
rafters of the Grace's parking garage in downtown Abilene is more
interesting than frightening.
The bats sleep during the day. Then at night, flocks of squeaking
bats fly out of the rafters in waves to go foraging for food.
"We are real tempted to have an event -- to have people
come and watch people watch the bats at the Grace," Godfrey
said, adding that they might bring in a bat expert.
THAT TIME OF YEAR
Animal control officials say it's that time of year again when
bats normally begin appearing in the downtown area.
"We've got bats all over Abilene, especially downtown,
where they can get into those old buildings and roost and not
be bothered," explained Charlotte Roy, superintendent for
city's animal control department. "They're not aggressive.
They just kind of mind their own business."
Bats -- nature's only flying mammal -- have also been known
to swoop down in the middle of a speech or orchestra concert at
the Abilene Civic Center. The creatures, who resemble small birds,
have already made appearances in the newsroom at the Reporter-News
and in other local buildings.
Tom Becker, a technician for Telecom, was installing phones
at the Reporter-News recently when he got locked in a room with
a bat.
"He just stayed in there and followed me around,"
Becker said. "It was like my pet. It wanted to stay by me."
In the past week, bats have nearly overrun The Windsor, an
historic old hotel that houses elderly residents.
"We've been running 10-15 a day out the hallways and the
mezzanine," said Connie Labrenz, the Windsor's assistant
manager. "We're trying to figure out (how they're getting
in.) It's been a mess."
Management has called animal control and the zoo in hopes of
solving the problem, but to no avail, she said. Labrenz acknowledged
that residents are in an uproar over the flying pests who have
even gotten into some of the apartments.
"I don't blame them (for being upset), but there's nothing
that we can do about it," she said.
However, Labrenz said they have been given the name and phone
number of a San Antonio-based "bat eradicator."
"We're going to have them come down and get rid of them
and then seal it up so they can't get in," she said. The
"bat eradicator" won't kill the bats, however.
Most likely, it's the Mexican free-tail bat that's been causing
The Windsor so much problems, animal control officials said.
"There are a lot of immature bats that have just been
born in late spring and early summer," said Andy Moore, a
development assistant with Austin-based Bat Conservation International.
"A lot of the bats that would normally be in caves and rock
crevices are moving into buildings."
THE MIGRATION
The free-tail bats migrate each spring from central Mexico
to roosting sites throughout the southwestern United States, Moore
said. They return to Mexico in early November.
"The free-tails are the type of bat that forms large colonies,"
Moore said. "They're very social."
One bat can eat up to 600 mosquito- and gnat-sized creatures
in one hour. They help keep nature's ecological balance in check
and reduce reliance on chemical pesticides, Moore said.
"The free-tails, in particular, are primarily predators
of lots of agricultural pests," he said.
Bats, Moore added, have created a niche for themselves by hunting
at night rather than during the day when there is an abundance
of insect predators.
Contrary to popular belief, bats aren't blind, Moore said.
Bats have a form of radar, called echolocation, that allows them
to find their prey.
"They emit a sound through their mouth and nose and it
bounces off the insect," Moore said. "They use that
to find their prey."
While animal control officials sometimes have to remove a bat
from a home or office, people need to remember that bats try to
avoid humans, Moore said.
"We tell people that, just like with any other wild animal,
you should not handle bats," he said.
It is widely believed that bats carry rabies. However, statistics
show that less than one half of one percent have it, Moore said.
If a bat gets inside a home, he said, "you can close all
the doors to a room and open a window. They will fly out."
Myths about Bats
Myth: Bats are blind
Fact: All bats can see. Bats also have a second ÒsightÓ
mechanism called echolocation. It is a very sophisticated sonar
system inaudible to the human ear.
Myth: Bats suck our blood.
Fact: There are only three species of bats that feed on blood.
Vampire bats live in Mexico and Central and South America. There
are no vampire bats in the United States. Vampire bats lap, not
suck, small amounts of blood. They rarely attempt to feed on humans
because human blood is not palatable to them.
Myth: Bats get entangled in our hair.
Fact: Wrong. A bat's echolocation is so fine-tuned it can detect
the difference between a strand of hair and a gnat.
Myth: Bats carry rabies.
Fact: Like all mammals, bats can contract rabies, but they
are not asymptomatic carriers of the virus. When a bat gets rabies,
it usually dies. Also, the frequency of rabies in bats is very
low.
Source: Bat Conservation International
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story
to A Friend:
Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
