When you think about Halloween, what images come to mind? Bony skeletons, spooky ghosts and black bats probably pop into your mind. Bats are majestic flyers, swooping across the sky or hanging upside down from a tree. For some people, however, bats are less beautiful and much more terrifying. Chiroptophobia is the intense and irrational fear of bats. Hopefully after reading this, you’ll have a friendlier view of bats and a better understanding of how important they are to the environment.
Bat Week is an international celebration designed to raise awareness about the need for bat conservation. These amazing creatures are essential to the health of our natural world as well as our economy. You may not always see them, but bats are hard at work all around us at night - doing good by eating tons of insects, pollinating flowers and spreading seeds that grow new plants and trees.
More than half of the bat species in the United States are in severe decline or listed as an endangered species. The major threats to bats are a loss of their natural habitats, reduced food supplies, the destruction of their roosts, and through disease and hunting that kills off populations.
Bats play a major role in their ecosystems. There are more than 1,300 species of bats worldwide, making up a quarter of the world’s mammals. Insect-eating bats help to control disease-carrying and crop-harming insects, which helps reduce losses for farmers. Fruit-eating bats can spread seeds as they fly and digest food, which can help revive deforested lands. Nectar-feeding bats act as pollinators to many valuable plant species, including bananas, balsa wood, mangoes, agave and cashews.
There are interesting resources on the Bat Week website such as an activity booklet for young learners to learn about cave ecosystems and national parks, a fact sheet that breaks down the myths and truths about bats, and even a cookbook that contains recipes inspired by bat-dependent foods. All of these resources are free and available for you to educate yourself and others about all things bats.
You may also be inspired to take action and do what you can to support bat conservation efforts. You can build a bat house at your home or in your neighborhood, take a bat walk with a bat expert in your community, or even organize a bat club to expand your reach in supporting bats.
Some wonderful books have bats as the leading characters, like Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, is available in both English and Spanish, or Bats At the Library by Brian Lies.
Check out these books and many more from the library! Be sure to ask a librarian if you’re looking for a more specific recommendation.
Alison Robles is a part-time page at the Crestwood Library. She is an avid reader with a passion for YA lit, historical fiction and fantasy. A Yonkers native, she graduated from Iona University in 2020 with a dual-degree in Marketing and Public Relations. She is pursuing an MS in Information and Library Science from the University at Buffalo.
Z is the Branch Manager at the Crestwood Library. She LOVES bats, is a big bat advocate and enjoys cultivating library experiences for patrons of all ages and connecting people with resources and has been doing so for over 30 years.