Bats have underserved reputation
Toronto Wildlife Centre rescued more than 30 bats from extreme cold./Handout/QMI Agency
The little winged mammal, the bat needs a new public relations agent. In books, movies and even cartoons, bats have been portrayed as scary animals which are responsible for everthing from rabies to vampires.
However, their reputation in literature and popular culture is unfounded.
Bev Littke, Whitecourt and District Public Library assistant librarian, said the bat does a lot of helpful things and she hopes to change people’s perception.
On Saturday, Feb. 22 the Whitecourt and District Public Library is putting on a special presentation about bats to help get rid of that misconception.
Littke said she came up with idea after reading an article about bats in an October issue of the Western Producer.
“The article talked about a lot of the misconceptions people have about bats. For example, that bats carry rabies. Yes, some bats can have rabies but you are much more likely to get bitten by a dog that has rabies than a bat.”
There are a number of other misconceptions about bats as well. For example, Littke said bats will not suck a person’s blood or fly into a person’s hair.
“Bats don’t like to get tangled in anything let alone a person’s hair. Bats will actually do everything they can to avoid the possibility of getting tangled, including avoiding people.”
Out of the more than 1,000 types of bats in the world, only nine can be found in Canada.
“And none of those nine species are Vampire bats,” Littke said.
Vampire bats, the species of bat whose diet consists solely of blood, live in Central and South America.
Littke said all the species of bats that live in Canada are nocturnal insect eaters, including the most common bat in Alberta, the little brown bat.
The little brown bat’s diet consists entirely of insects, mostly mosquitoes.
A little known fact about the little brown bat, Littke said, is that it can eat up to its own body weight in insects every day.
Unfortunately for the little brown bat, its existence is being threatened by a disease called the white nose syndrome.
“Right now, scientists do not have a cure for the disease nor do they know how to prevent it. It is killing somewhere between 95 and 99 per cent of the individual bats it infects.”
Wind turbines are another challenge for the little brown bat.
“For some reason, probably the noise the wind turbines make, the bats are attracted to the turbines and they are being killed as they fly into the blades of the windmill.”
Littke said the wind turbine companies have been asked if they could shut off the turbines at dusk during the bats’ migration seasons.
As part of the special presentation on bats, Littke has arranged for a biologist from Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development to give people the true facts about bats.
After the presentation, Littke said people will get a chance to build their very own bat house to take home with them.
The presentation is open to people of any age but Littke encourages any children who want to attend the event to be accompanied by an adult.
This is because there will be some supervision needed when construction of the bat houses begins. Although the event is free, space is limited, so people who are interested in attending are asked to preregister by Friday, Feb. 14, by 5 p.m. either in person at the library or by telephone at 780-778-2900.