National Geographic : 1995 Aug
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC O Assignment * NORTH AMERICAN BATS Capeless Crusader for Bat Conservation "BATS AREN'T DANGEROUS, but their caves can be," insists real-life batman MERLIN D. TUTTLE, who for decades has studied and sought protection for the flying mammals. Here he climbs a guano-slick cave in Tennessee with assistant Don na Hensley in search of bats. Hours after photographing baby Mexican freetails in Texas in 1983 (below), Tuttle was hospitalized for ten days with ammonia poisoning. Breathing through a faulty respirator mask, he had inhaled toxic fumes-a by product of guano-eating bee tles-while working a total of 60 hours in 100°F heat and near 100 percent humidity. "The doctors said I could end up an emphysemic invalid for life. They told me never to go into such a cave again," says Tuttle. But he did-with a working respirator-48 hours after leaving the hospital and soon recovered completely. Tuttle began his career behind the camera after writ ing a chapter about bats for the Society's book Wild Ani mals of North America. He was shocked that only fero cious images of bats were available to illustrate his text. "They contradicted every thing I'd written," he recalls. So he shot his own pictures for the book. Some 100,000 frames later, Tuttle has photo graphed a third of the world's nearly 1,000 bat species and their behavior. "You do need patience," says the man who often waits an entire night to snap one picture. NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC (ISSN0027-9358) ISPUBLISHEDMONTHLYBYTHENATIONALGEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY,1145 17THST.N.W.,WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036-4688.$25.00 AYEAR,$3.00 ACOPY. SECOND-CLASS POSTAGEPAIDATWASHINGTON, D. C.,ANDELSEWHERE. POSTMASTER: SENDADDRESSCHANGESTONATIONALGEOGRAPHIC, P.O .BOX2174, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20013.