Tomato hornworms and corn earworms plague backyard gardeners and farmers alike. We don't need more toxic pesticides; just more bats. Conservation educator Rob Mies (40, Bloomingfield, Michigan) spoke to Suite 101 about these misunderstood mammals, their value to humans and what threatens them.
The Making of a Bat Advocate
Mies, founder and director of the nonprofit Organization for Bat Conservation (OBC), grew up in a Detroit suburb. His father, a mechanic for Ford, took him on week-long camping trips. Like most kids, Rob enjoyed prowling around in the dark with a flashlight. These outings awakened his love of nature's nightlife. As a camp counselor in college, Rob shared his knowledge with his campers on nocturnal outings.
With conservation biology as one of his majors at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), Mies had an opportunity to work on research projects. As it happened, there was one on bats. He signed up and has never looked back.
Mies realized that, although he enjoyed research, his greatest gift was his ability to educate the public. The threat that declining bat populations pose to both the natural and human environment caused him to abandon plans for post graduate degrees and get to work. Mies travels the country with live bats. He appeared on The Tonight Show in October, 2009. He is "pushing people to make a difference for bats before they disappear."
Bats: Myth and Reality
Rob's motivation is the dichotomy between popular misconceptions about bats and the truth about their lives and value. One common falsehood is that they are blind. Another is that they will get stuck in your hair. When he brings his bats to schools, this myth is quickly dispelled, as the group looks into their bright, intelligent eyes. Nonetheless, people are more likely to have a fondness and respect for animals like the Brown bear.
"Wonderful as they are, they don't do much in terms of the ecosystem. Bats, on the other hand, are keystone species in many ecosystems. This means that without them, the ecosystem cannot survive."
Bats can carry and die from rabies like other mammals, but it is rare rather than rampant as many assume. All of OBC's bats are vaccinated regularly.
The Bat Zone
OBC is located at the Cranbrook Institute of Science (Bloomfield Hills, MI), a natural history museum. OBC's exhibit features the Bat Zone, with 150 rescued, injured and orphaned bats comprising 10 species. They also have other animals like the African Bush Baby (a lemur-like primate) and the Three-Toed Sloth.
Preparing bats for show business is something OBC approaches with great care and affection for their animals. Bats who don't enjoy working with the public live a life of leisure. Even those who enjoy the work are used sparingly. The noninvasive training involves slowly accustoming the bats to crowds, light and noise.
Mies has his favorites including Congo, a Straw fruit bat from Africa with a funny personality. Congo "likes to squawk and flap and stare at the audience." Kamilah, another favorite, is a Malayan flying fox, the world's largest bat species. "She's so easy-going," he says, "People enjoy seeing a 3 pound, furry animal with a 6 foot wingspan."
Benefits and Threats
Mies explains that there are over 1100 species of bats in the world, over 20% of all mammal species. Their benefits include insect control for both agricultural crop and natural forest pests. They are also vital to seed distribution and pollination. In Arizona and New Mexico, species like the Mexican long-tongued bat eat only nectar, pollinating the saguaro cactus. The Agave, from which tequila is made, is pollinated only by bats.
Most people know bats eat insects, but the extent and significance of that is not widely known. Bats are the primary predator of nighttime insects especially moths and beetles; one bat eats two thousand insects a night. Farmers need less pesticides, lowering costs and making the food supply safer. Bats eat tree-destroying beetles, like the emerald ash borer. Bat consumption of moths and beetles is far more important to our human economy and environment than eating mosquitoes, Mies explains.
Bats are threatened by habitat loss and human ignorance. Though some improvements were made in species like the Indiana bat, since 2007 over 1,000,000 northeastern US bats have died from white-nose syndrome. A nonnative fungus irritates bats into waking early from hibernation. They subsequently die of starvation.
The Future of Bats
OBC is working with organic and traditional farmers, putting up bat houses and studying how that impacts crop pests. After 15 years of research, OBC developed improved bat houses and placement recommendations. They encourage people to place large houses with three-quarter-inch chambers on poles at least 15 feet high or on the side of buildings in open sunny locations. "I don't care if people even like them," Mies states, "but they need to know how beneficial bats are and that they need to be conserved."
Donna W. Hill - Donna W. Hill is an author, singer/songwriter, recording artist, speaker and avid knitter in Pennsylvania's rural Endless Mountains. Her ...
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