Bat Week

Just in time for Halloween - Bat Week wraps up October 31st. Bat Week provides an opportunity to educate and celebrate bats and their benefits. Sixteen partners contribute to Bat Week including the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bat Conservation International, USGS and Parks Canada.  

There are over 1,100 species of bats on earth, with the United States National Park Service providing habitat for fifty species. But, populations are threatened, with the fungal disease White-nose Syndrome (WNS) and other threats such as loss of habitat and fatalities from wind turbines.

Why be care about bats?

• Bats help control pests - including those that transmit disease and those that can destroy agricultural crops. A single little brown bat can consumer up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour, and it is estimated that in the United States, bats save farmers annually $3.7 million in reduced crop damage and pesticide use. 
• Bats are valuable pollinators - bats consume nectar and are essential pollinators for certain species such as the giant cacti and agave. 
• Bats promote seed propagation - fruit eating bats cover large distances, dispersing seeds in flight. 
• Bats are cool. Would the superhero world be the same without Batman and would anyone remember Bram Stoker without Dracula?

So this Halloween, take extra notice to those trick-or-treaters dressed in black with pointed ears and give thanks to those winged creatures that will be flying overhead at night.

Sources: Bat Conservation International,  www.batcon.org
               Defenders of Wildlife, www.defenders.org