This week is Bat Week, October 24th – 31st or one week in the year when we celebrate these valued creatures, a gardener’s friend.

I have few encounters with bats but I do know how we need them especially me because they devour mosquitoes and mosquitoes devour me. Of course there are many more reasons why bats are an integral part of our ecosystem.

My first encounter with a bat was in northern Saskatchewan, when we drove a dead bat in a jar to my first born’s Christening. We lived in a remote location and the bat need to be tested for rabies as rabies had been found in the area in which we lived. As we were making the trip to the closest center, we were nominated courier. The bat was delivered and found to be rabid. It was a very sad story as a child had died in the interim by catching rabies from his rabid cat. Northern rural Saskatchewan could be a harsh place to live.

My second encounter was while staying with friends in an old home in Toronto. It was one of those steamy, hot, sultry Toronto summer days and we were trying to get away from the heat by sitting in the basement, when in flew a bat. It hastened out as fast as it came in but quite a shock at the time.

My third encounter was in my classroom, when I had invited a speaker in. It was a wonderful interactive time with the a live bat and the children. I believe we all learned a lot that day and from their human like hands to their sweet faces. We also learned a lot about bat behavior and lost some of the fear that seems to be passed on through folk tales and misinformation. Watching a nine year old with a live bat on their shoulder, being totally entranced made for a a very special learning experience.

My most recent encounter was last year when my husband asked me to come and see what he had found in my mini meadow. It was a dead bat and my immediate concern was whether the dogs had touched it, especially after our first encounter. This, after all, was not a bat used to being handled and taken round to classrooms. We phoned the authorities but no one seemed concerned at the time and so with gloved hands the bat was disposed of.

I have a serious respect for these amazing creatures of which there are many species, sixteen in B.C. alone. It seems as with many programs, initiatives to educate and promote depend so much on volunteers. A few years ago there was a big push to educate about White Nose Syndrome in bats and how it has been responsible for depleting populations. We also became aware of bat boxes and how to best build and place them.

Bat Box in Elizabeth lake Conservation Area Cranbrook

What we need and should know is best left to the experts so please go to this link:

This list below is posted with credit to :

Here are some of the real facts about bats:

• Bats are not rodents but rather belong to their own group of mammals or “Order” called Chiroptera which means “hand-wing”. The wing of a bat is two layers of skin and the bones look like a human hand with elongated fingers. In fact, bats are far more closely related to primates (such as monkeys and humans) than they are to rodents.
• Bats eat huge amounts of flying insects, sometimes more than their own weight in insects per night. That’s like a 150 lb person eating 600 “quarter-pounder” burgers in one day! Many of the insects that bats eat are likely to be mosquitoes.
• Different groups of bats eat different things. There are groups of bats that eat fruit, nectar, insects, mammals, fish, or blood. Only three species of bats in the world eat blood and these are the vampire bats of Central and South America. All bats in Canada eat nothing but insects (and other arthropods) and in most cases, only flying insects.
• The saliva of vampire bats contains an anti-coagulant that allows the blood to keep flowing after a bite so that the bat can lap up the blood. This chemical is being used as a treatment for strokes because it can help dissolve blood clots in the brain. There is a drug developed called “draculin”.
• Bats are not blind. They have eyes and can see, likely better than we can under dimly lit conditions. Some bats (flying foxes found in the old world) navigate using vision alone and appear to be able to see even better than owls!
• Bats in Canada navigate and find prey mostly using echolocation. Bats emit regular calls (at the intensity of screams) and then listen to the echo of their voice. By the sound and timing of the echo, they can determine the range, the size and type of objects in front of them, if they are flying, and how fast they are moving. It is such an amazing system that the US Navy studies bats to improve human-developed sonar systems.
• There are 16 species of bats in BC (17 if you count the one record of a Big Free-tailed Bat that washed up in 1938 in New Westminster) and half of them are considered vulnerable or threatened.
• Bats in Canada either hibernate or migrate in winter. Little is known about bat hibernation sites, especially in western Canada. Bats are extremely sensitive to disturbance when they are hibernating and should be left alone.
• Bats expend a huge amount of energy to fly. As a result, they try to save energy when they can. They regularly use a system called torpor where they lower their heart rate, metabolism and body temperature and go into a deep sleep-like condition. It is like a mini-hibernation bout. They do this periodically through the night and during the day depending on local conditions.

For more information about bats, check out Bat Conservation International.