Bats. Know and respect.

“What we do in the shadows”

Life has never been easy for bats. The strange silhouette of his body, his black and imprecise color, his penetrating and sour scream, the dark and sinister of his shelters and even his strange way of sleeping, are enough elements for the fable of dread and the device of terror to rise up in his environment. ”The man who touches a bat will be impure”, Moses wrote in Leviticus (11:19).

For most people, these animals evoke stories of haunted houses, cemeteries and bloodthirsty vampires, or, at the very least, ominous beings inseparable from witches and elves. There is no doubt that bats have stimulated the imagination of human beings since time immemorial and, today, they continue to be beaten to death, poisoned or fumigated out of ignorance.

The fascination they exert is very great, since they glide silently at night, see with their ears, fly with their hands and hang themselves upside down to sleep. But, far from the myths that turn them into monsters in popular legends, bats are truly of paramount importance for the life of our planet.

Nearly a third of all mammals on the planet are bats, making them the second most diverse group with the most evolutionary radiation after rodents.

Nearly a thousand bat species have successfully colonized islands and deserts, jungles and cities, fields and mountains. Except for the polar regions and a few oceanic islands, there are bats all over the world. Their ecological functions are undeniable for the health of living systems: they actively participate in the dispersion of seeds, in the pollination of plant species and in the control of insect pests. Tropical fruits that represent important revenues for trade in their countries of origin (avocados, cacao, guava, bananas and many others), are obtained thanks to the pollination of bats.

As for the Iberian Peninsula, there are about 25 species of bats that suffer permanently from the known threats of the loss or alteration of natural habitats, restoration of their shelters in human environments, desiccation of water points where they feed, pesticides that eliminate their potential prisoners, discomfort from visitors and also direct persecution.

Bats Nights

In this sense, with the aim of publicizing the importance of bats, overthrowing myths and bad omens and bringing their knowledge closer to the general population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in collaboration with various public and private institutions, has been promoting the successful 'Bats Night' for more than a decade, an environmental activity that consists of dedicating several summer nights to censoring these fabulous flying mammals and making people aware of their essential role in ecosystems.

An example of this initiative can be found in the province of Huelva, where environmental groups (thanks to material provided by Environmental Ideas), carried out bat censuses in rural areas and also in wooded areas, in order to learn about the species in the environment and bring them closer in a friendly way to the public, especially the youngest. In addition to the census and identification of species, the activity was funded by the Huelva Provincial Council, who paid for nest boxes for bats to be installed by l@ voluntary @s in the vicinity of old buildings already occupied, light sheds, abandoned houses, etc., in order to consolidate the colonies.

Las BatNights they are, therefore, excellent tools for volunteering and environmental education focused on the conservation of chiroptera, seeking to make citizens more familiar with this faunal group and to perceive it with greater naturalness and interest in its conservation, since the cumulative effect of threats in recent decades has led to significant local decreases.

Batman and Dracula

In short, a beautiful opportunity for summer nights, with their star-studded skies, to serve to make us all aware of the crucial contribution of bats to nature, their contribution to diversity and the many benefits they bring to human beings. Between the gloomy vision that Bram Stoker endorsed bats in his prodigious Dracula and the epic perception that Kane and Finger attributed to these winged beings for the powers of Batman, perhaps it's time to lean towards the latter, and begin to see bats as fascinating beings from a world that cries out every day for the conservation and respect of their species.