If you don't like bugs, you should love bats

Photo by Doug Grove
These pallid bats are using a bridge as a night roost. Bridges serve as secure places to roost that are usually close to food (insects) and water resources.

By Mitzi Brabb
Gazette/Connection Correspondent

There are a number of ecologists and researchers who believe that bats may be one of the most misunderstood animals known to man. From myths of blood-sucking varmints, to the stories of those who carry the extremely infectious disease of rabies, it might come as a surprise to learn that bats have received a bum rap, and are actually enormously important to the ecosystem.

Retired Arizona Game and Fish bat biologist, Nancy Renison, offered an evening of bat watching and listening at Green Valley Park on Thursday night, April 29. She taught interested parties about these mysterious flyers, including how they navigate and capture their prey.

Bats are difficult to see and hear at night, so special night vision equipment and acoustical devices are needed for researchers who work in the field. Renison used these tools to demonstrate how to hear bats, and to count the number of bats passing by. By increasing the frequency on acoustical monitoring equipment, one can actually hear the fluttering of bat wings as they pass by, and hear their calls to the wild.

Renison states that bats are the number one predator of night-flying insects; some 70percent of the world’s bats are insect eaters or insectivores. In central Texas, home of the world’s largest bat colony, about 1,000 tons of insects are devoured each night.

As gruesome as it may seem, these farmer friendly creatures provide a safer, more efficient, and far less costly alternative to pesticides used on crops. Studies from the Ecological Society of America claim that these natural pest killers save farmers in Texas millions of dollars a year from insect damaged crops.

“There are 28 species of bats in Arizona,” said Renison. “We are second only to Texas, which has 32 of the largest and most diverse species of bats in the country.”