Potent quotables
I soon learned that both sexes sometimes travel long distances, apparently just exploring or visiting “friends.”
Lurid media exaggerations have grossly misrepresented vampire bats. They have never descended on humans in attacking hordes, as described by tabloids. Quite the opposite, they are timid and so small that I can hide one in the palm of my hand.
Despite the nearly universal notoriety of vampire bats, they seldom pose a threat to humans, constitute only a tiny fraction of our planet’s bats, and can easily be controlled without harm to other species. Grossly exaggerated myths aside, vampire bats rank among our planet’s most fascinating, even valuable animals. And they may even one day save your life! Vampire saliva contains a veritable treasure trove of unique regulatory molecules of potentially great value in the development of modern medicines. Just one of the substances discovered from the common vampire, desmoteplase, is currently being tested as a much-improved treatment for human stroke victims.
Almost an hour later, we began catching pallid bats (Antrozous pallidus), lots of them. Most were covered with yellow pollen. We assumed that they acquired the pollen only as they chased large sphinx moths that hovered at flowers. Twenty years later, however, biologists would document these bats to be deliberate nectar-feeders in the Sonoran Desert where they effectively pollinate giant cacti.
My casual observations of buds, flowers, and fruits suggested that cardon, organ pipe, and saguaro cacti might be staggering their peak flowering and fruiting seasons to reduce competition for bats.
Throughout my career I’ve often been surprised at the frequency with which bat contributions to nature and human economies have gone unrecognized. In fact, most of the world’s more than 1,300 bat species remain unstudied.
Why do plants go to such great lengths to attract bats? As Ralph would say, “Bats simply carry more pollen farther.” Through association with Ralph, I’ve learned that the diversity and abundance of bat-pollinated flowers is far greater than even I had ever imagined.
In Latin America, one short-tailed fruit bat can carry 60,000 seeds to new locations in a single night, having a huge impact on dispersal of “pioneer” plants into clearings.
Studies of human attitudes reveal that the more we know about bats, the more we like them. And like them or not, new discoveries increasingly justify bat conservation based solely on economics.
Lit review
Bats are one of my favorite animals, a fact I feel entirely justified in by my boy Merlin Tuttle.