If I ever wondered what it would feel like to have bats in my belfry, this is definitely the year. Pandemic, wildfire smoke, bridge closures, what’s next? Well, I’ll tell you what’s next: time to celebrate real bats. It’s a little ironic that I’m devoting a column to bats because I had a major phobia about these flying mammals when I was a little girl. It started with an unexpected outdoor encounter. My family was vacationing at a mountain retreat in New Mexico, and one evening while taking a walk around the camp, one of the grown-ups discovered a small bat resting in a bush. I hate to admit this, but I was freaked out and wanted to run back to our cabin. So much for a wildlife lesson: my 6-year-old brain was in no mood to understand bat benefits.
But now I appreciate the mammals of the Order Chiroptera (even if I still cringe a bit when I spot one flying around). October is the perfect month to cheer on these insect-eating machines because bats get a bad rap this time of year (think blood-sucking vampires). These creatures of the night are not going to terrorize your family; instead, they will help to manage insect populations, and many of them are considered keystone species because other plants and animals depend on them to help maintain vital ecosystems.
While I still don’t want to hang out with bats, I respect their place in the world. If all bats were like “Stellaluna” (if you haven’t read this absolute charmer of a picture book by Janell Cannon about a baby bat who is raised like a bird until she’s reunited with her mother, please add it to your reading list ), I could see myself becoming a crazy bat lady – in addition to being a crazy cat lady – but for now, I’ll continue to socially distance from (but admire and respect) all manner of bats. Perhaps you can introduce the fascinating world of bats to a youngster or two by checking out a few titles from the library’s collection.
“The Bat Book” written and illustrated by Charlotte Milner. (children’s nonfiction)
“Bat Citizens: Defending the Ninjas of the Night” by Rob Laidlaw. (children’s nonfiction)
“Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species” by Marianne Taylor. (nonfiction)
“Flying Blind: One Man’s Adventures Battling Buckthorn, Making Peace with Authority, and Creating a Home for Endangered Bats” by Don Mitchell. (nonfiction)
