Walls are dark, floors stained and grimy. The ceiling is alive.
Hundreds of black-winged creatures bristle aboveāall fluttering and flailing to the same beat.
The imagery has all the trappings of a horror movie, or it could be the icky substance of dreamsānightmares for many of us.
Take in any Hollywood classic about vampires, and youāll likely see bats haunting a cold, damp castle in Transylvania, waiting for its next plasma transfusion.
Great cinemaābut it couldāt be further from the truth.
Only three of an estimated 1,000 bat species worldwide feed on blood, and they live only in parts of tropical Central and South America.
Similarly, look at a childās drawing this Halloween. It probably depicts bats on the fly, along with witches and ghouls.
Experts, however, describe bats as gentle, highly social, and intelligent creatures, the second-most common mammals on earth (second only to rodents). Bats nuzzle one another, adopt orphans, and learn a unique vocabulary to communicate solely with their mothers.
So why have bats been feared, loathed, and hunted, some species to the brink of extinction?
Well, most likely because bats are nocturnal creatures. And if weāre not used to seeing something, it takes on a persona of mystery.
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While vampire bats in South and Central America have the unsettling habit of slurping blood from sleeping animals, the bats of our Southern West Virginia region are dedicated insectivores. One small bat can eat up to 2,000 mosquito-sized insects a night.
By feasting on flies, munching mosquitoes, and crunching cockroachesāat a rate of hundreds per hourābats may be the unsung heroes of the night sky.
Hundreds of thousands of bats comprise a colony; in the United States between 50 and 60 million bats have been discovered in a single enclave.
āThe largest colonies of mammals you can find on earth are formed by bats,ā explained Larry Berry, retired wildlife biologist with the DNR in Beckley. āThey are very important in the balance of biological processes around the world.ā
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Still, bats are among the most unpopular of natureās creatures.
Blockbuster movies featuring bloodsucking bats have saddled even the humblest bat with an unsavory reputation.
Bats have gathered mystery and misconception like moss.
Chalk it up to pop folklore.
People are frightened of what they donāt know about.
The dreaded bat bite is also mostly fiction since bats in North America strictly observe their bug-based diets.
And even if a bat did take leave of his senses and go for our juggler, most of us would hardly break a sweat, much less a blood vessel.
Aside from the sensation of having furry wings pressed to your flesh, a bat bite can be softer than a pin prick.
No blood gushing from an artery. No puncture wounds at the jugular on the side of the neck. Thatās strictly Hollywood hype.
Even so, you donāt want to handle a bat, even though itās partially a myth that bats are prone to carry rabies. Theyāre rabid in lesser proportions than dog and cat populations. And unlike other rabid animals that tend to attack, rabid bats lie still.
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Nevertheless, in the last 25 years, nearly 50 people in the United States and Canada died from rabies; of those deaths, nearly 30 were caused by bat rabies, one involving the death of a 9-year-old boy in Montreal.
The numbers are low enough that bats are rarely studied from a rabies perspective, but biologists advise people who get nipped to see a doctor and fast. A series of post-exposure shots is the best defense against rabies.
Despite their shady reputation, some people are welcoming bats to their neighborhoods. Some are even building homes for them.
Like a bird house but with a gothic twist, bat houses have bottom-side entrances through which bats fly. Once inside, they hang from a series of slats.
And you could say that the upside-down lifestyle gives the skittish critters one key advantage.
Itās easy to take offājust let go and gravity does the rest.
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Itās in the dark, meanwhile, that bats have their edge: they use echo location, or bio sonar, to chart their course.
By bouncing sounds off objects, they can detect an object as fine as a single human hair.
And thereās more to a bat than meets the eye. For some, most of a batās charm is what meets the pavement. Bat droppingsāor guanoāis a rich fertilizer, brimming with nitrogen and phosphorous. Recently, guano from a single cave sold for $6 million.
From gunpowder additive to skin cream to detergent, guanoās mystique is as boundless as the batās flight plan.
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For centuries, bats were feared and reviled as repulsive nocturnal spirits who had to be kept out of houses by any means possible. The most unusual diet is that of vampire bats, which feed by licking blood. But those species live only in Central and South America.
Bats common to the Mountain State are insect-devouring varieties, none of which are bloodsuckers in the true sense. Bats are hibernators. They survive on stored fat as their body temperature drops to around 50 degrees (from about 100 degrees). If they are triggered out of hibernation, they will start shivering to produce body heat and could use up to 40 to 70 days of their fat reserves.
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Top oā the morning!