As a child I was fascinated by bats. This was a fascination that came about gradually, first prompted by several comic strips, then by some wonderful books about the natural world which my mother had ordered from Blackwell's in England - source of reading material for many transplanted English speakers in the distant frontiers and among the hairy savages.
For several years, whenever another book about bats appeared, I would anxiously await the new shipment from Oxford.
Oddly, such a thing didn't happen often. Not nearly enough.
Eventually I moved on to bigger and better things. Pipes and tobacco. Mediaeval history. Kurt Weil & Bertold Brecht. The age of the Celts. Charlemagne and his paladins. Genghiz Khan. The brutal exploitation of innocent artistic natives by bloodthirsty Europeans during the colonial age.
Still, bats continued to fascinate.
There are at least two bats that live in my neighborhood. After twilight on their street they emerge from the crevasse between two buildings, and fly up and down the block hunting for food. Occasionally I will stand on the corner and observe them for a while.
I think these are Myotis of some sort. Myotis lucifugus? It's the ears, you see. And the colouration. Plus the fact that the nose is snoutlike, rather than rhinolophidous.
There is also a fully membraned tail which can be used to flip a wily bug up towards the mouth.
Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and related species eat insects - flies, mosquitoes, gnats, moths, etcetera. They are quite voracious.
Yesterday evening there were three of them. Two larger, one smaller.
Bats in the temperate zone mate in autumn, the single infant is born in spring.
Both of the larger bats may have been female - often pregnant females congregate in a maternity roost, but if only a few of them inhabit a locale, this may not be possible.
This has been a rather wet spring, which guarantees far more pests than usual.
I, for one, would like to welcome junior to the neighborhood, and congratulate his (her?) doting mother on this happy event.
Mazel tov!
May their tribe increase.
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2 comments:
Perhaps they're lesbians, this being San Francisco.
I lived on an Island in the South Pacific when I was a boy of about 13. I happened upon a Fruit Bat that thrived in the area with so many mango, papia and bread fruit trees in the area. For some reason the furry little winged mouse was not well and so I took it home and nursed him or her (not sure) back to health with banana's and fruit juice. Sadly my parents made me set it free when it had recovered but I must say it made a wonderful pet. My kids think they are evil blood suckers thanks to the self interest of media and little real life experiance outside of Mayberry RFD.
Kevin
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