Of all species of mammals living on earth today, approximately 1,000, or one quarter, are bats!

Bats alone among mammals have mastered the art of active flight.  Hand in hand with the development of flight, bats have evolved a perfect system of echolocation, by which they can perceive objects and prey in the darkest of night.  Because they have acquired flight, they are able to undertake migrations of the kind we are most familiar with in migratory birds.  In the summer, many species in the temperate latitudes leave their summer roosts in which they have given birth, and migrate to frost free winter quarters sometimes more than a hundred miles away.  There they survive the freezing temperatures of winter through hibernation.  This entails reducing their body temperature and maintaining metabolism at a reduced rate.  Other bats in our southern latitudes migrate more than 1,000 miles to Mexico and Central America where there is no need for hibernation.

The word bat is associated with the idea of mystical creatures that are menacing, that may become entangled in a woman's hair or spread diseases by simply swooping by it's victim.  Their nocturnal habit and silent flight were undoubtedly responsible for the belief that grew among people that bats are in league with the powers of evil.  For this reason they have played a major role in the superstitious beliefs of people. Still today, in many countries, bats are unjustifiably persecuted and destroyed.  The fact is that the majority of bats are harmless and extremely beneficial. They are responsible for things like, pollination and seed dispersal of important plant species and the control of harmful insect pests.

However, in the last 40 years, bat numbers in industrial countries of the Old and New World have shown a steady decline.  Fear and superstition are not the prime causes of the reduction in numbers, but to a greater extent, the increasing rapid changes in the environment. An animal group that has become specialized over a period of millions of years cannot adapt itself overnight to new conditions.  Legal measures alone are by no means enough to safeguard bat numbers.  Only when people are ready to take active measures to conserve these creatures and their habitats, is there any chance of preventing these curious and beneficial animals from being eliminated forever.

A baby bat - referred to as a "pup."