Canoe Creek State Park in central Pennsylvania turns out to be a prime
real estate location, at least if you happen to be a bat. The 930-acre
park has gained fame, in part, because of a bat colony that makes
its summer home in an old church by the park.
What makes this church so special is amongst the 23,000 Little Brown
Bats living there, are several hundred Indiana Bats. This species,
which looks a lot like its housemate, has been on the endangered species
list 1967.
Most unusual about the whole living arrangement
is that the old church has passed muster with a very picky customer,
the mother Indiana Bat. Until the discovery of a maternal colony in
the church's attic, no one believed these animals would use a man-made
structure for raising their young.
Often misunderstood and much maligned, bats are actually a valuable
natural human ally.
First and foremost, they're a voracious mosquito eater. Bats such
as the Little Brown Bat and the Indiana Bat have a small skin membrane
at the base of their bodies which they use to "scoop" multiple
insects out of the air and then eat them while in flight.
Through this technique, combined with their aerial speed and agility,
these small bats can consume hundreds of mosquitoes per hour while
feeding.
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Many bat species thrive near crop lands,
in part because they feed off the very same insect pests farmers are
trying to get rid of. Larger bats will eat beetles and other bigger
insects that the Little Browns and Indiana Bats don't touch.
Medical science is also finding bats have something to offer us. Vampire
Bats (found only in South America) use their incisors to make tiny
cuts in cow's legs and lap up the blood that trickles out. Researchers
are very close to using derivatives of the anti-coagulant the bats
produce to help treat human heart attack patients.
Some smaller bats — such as the Little Brown Bat and the Indiana
Bat — mate in the fall and store the sperm in their bodies until
becoming impregnated in the spring. This means the female bat is storing
a perishable foreign material in her body for six months while keeping
it viable. Scientists are interested in learning how the bat pulls
this trick off, it could lead to new ways of preventing transplant
rejections. |
