Ranger Mary Kay Interviews a Non-Vampire Bat
While hiking a trail recently, I met a friendly bat who was willing to answer some questions I had about him and his friends.
Ranger: Before we start, I have to ask you this. You aren’t a vampire bat, are you?
Bat: Oh, no! I’m a Mexican free-tailed bat. During the winter I sometimes hang out with some vampire bats way down in southern Mexico, but they don’t like to be cold, so they won’t visit me here.
Ranger: So you won’t bite me during this interview?
Bat: I might if you try to touch me! We bats don’t like to be touched. It’s probably hard for you humans to resist, because we’re so soft and cute.
Ranger: You do look really soft and fuzzy, but I promise not to pet you. So if you don’t eat blood, what do you eat?
Bat: My friends and I eat insects. We especially like moths and beetles—those are our favorites—but we also eat mosquitoes, termites, flying ants, and pretty much anything else that flies in front of us. Some of my friends, the pallid bats, also eat scorpions and centipedes.
Ranger: That sounds dangerous!
Bat: Well, for a human it would be. But the pallid bats are immune to the scorpions’ sting, so it doesn’t bother them.
Ranger: That’s amazing. But it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of meat on a moth or a mosquito. On average, how many insects does it take to make a meal?
Bat: I try to eat about one-third of my body weight in insects every night. Now, some of the female bats who are nursing babies will eat about half their body weight or more in insects every night. Some of my bat friends, the cave myotises, can eat about 600 mosquitoes per hour, and up to 3,000 mosquitoes per night.
Ranger: Three thousand mosquitoes per night? That’s incredible! But you don’t look overweight; how can you eat so much and stay so slim?
Bat: Aerobics. Try flying over a fifty-square-mile area every night, and you’ll stay pretty slim, too. Plus I’ve just returned from southern Mexico for the winter. Migration will sure burn off the calories!
Ranger: So that’s why we don’t see you bats around here much in the winter. Do you ever hibernate?
Bat: No, I fly south to warmer areas instead. But some of the other bats here do. They’ll spend the winter in caves, rock crevices, mines, or under tree bark. They sleep all winter to avoid the cold. Personally, I prefer sunny Mexico.
Ranger: Let’s go back to what bats eat. In other parts of the world, bats eat fruit. Do you or any of your friends here in Big Bend eat fruits or berries?
Bat: No, most of us stick with pure protein. None of that sugary stuff. But there are some bats here that eat nectar. Look around the blooming century plants this summer in the Chisos Mountains and you might see some of the nectar-eating bats—they’re called Mexican long-nosed bats because they spend most of the year in Mexico, and their noses are long and pointy. I only see them here in June and July.
Ranger: At least nectar and fruit sit still while you eat them. How do you catch insects? I’ve heard that you bats use sonar.
Bat: That’s right! We make really high-pitched noises like this...
Ranger: I don’t hear anything.
Bat: Because most of our bat sounds are too high-pitched for you humans to hear. Anyway, we make this noise and then listen for the echo. By listening to the echo, I can tell you a lot about whatever the sound bounced off of. I can tell you how far away the insect is, how fast it’s moving, how big it is, all kinds of things. In fact, I can find objects as fine as a human hair just by using my echolocation system!
Ranger: Maybe that’s why lots of people think bats are blind, since you can fly around in the dark so well.
Bat: We bats can still see. We just don’t rely on our eyes the way that you humans do.
Ranger: I see that you’re hanging inside a dead tree branch today. Don’t you bats normally live in caves?
Bat: Your national park doesn’t have many caves, so we bats have to make do with rock shelters and crevices, dead trees, and mine shafts. Mine shafts are neat because they’re so much like caves! Sometimes we live in buildings with you humans, or even in the expansion joints in bridges.
Ranger: You guys are really adaptable! You’ve mentioned some of your friends, other types of bats who also live in Big Bend. How many different types of bats are there here in the park?
Bat: At last count, 20 species of us bats were found here in your park. This is a great place for bats to live because it’s warm most of the year; there are lots of insects; and there’s a lot of different habitat, so we can pick and choose where we want to live. For instance, some of my friends like to live in the high canyon walls above the river, while the long-nosed bats like to live up high in the mountains. Lots of us like to live in caves and deep rock crevices, but others prefer dead trees. So lots of us can live here without crowding each other.
Ranger: Do you ever have to worry about predators?
Bat: Yeah—those snakes are devious! Snakes can crawl up trees and rock walls; you have to hang way out away from rock walls if you want to stay away from snakes. Skunks and foxes can sometimes climb up to where we bats live, too. And owls and hawks try to catch us in the air. People are our main problem, though.
Ranger: People? Why do people try to hurt you?
Bat: I think because you’re afraid of us. You guys have all kinds of wild stories about how bats suck your blood, or how we all have rabies, or how we get stuck in your hair, and none of those things are true! People sometimes find caves where my friends are hibernating or just sleeping for the day and they’ll blast the cave shut, or set fires in there to suffocate and burn them.
Ranger: I’m really, really sorry that happens. If people knew more about you and your friends, they wouldn’t do things to hurt you.
Bat: Sometimes they don’t mean to hurt us. Sometimes it’s accidental – they cut down the trees we live in, or spray pesticides that poison our food, or close off the caves and mines that we like to hang out in. You people really know how to mess up good habitat.
Ranger: Unfortunately, that’s one thing we humans do really well. What can I do to get people to help you and protect your habitat?
Bat: Tell them about all the good things we do! Like the tons and tons of bad insects that we eat every year, and all the plants we pollinate. And how little things they do can drastically affect millions of us. And don’t forget to tell them how cute we are, too.
Ranger: I’ll do that. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. This has been really educational, and I think people will learn a lot about you and your friends.
Bat: You’re welcome. And I promise to stay out of their hair if they stay out of mine.
