DALLAS — Susan Gallagher brought out a large cage and introduced her “co-worker” — an Egyptian fruit bat named Fruity-Patootie.
She cupped the bat in one hand with its wings tucked at its side while she used her other hand to point out the bat’s body parts. “Look at her feet,” she said. “She has the cutest feet.”
Roughly 50 people of all ages crowded into Wild Birds Unlimited in the Dallas Shopping Center on Oct. 22 to learn about the benefits of bats, and Gallagher, chief naturalist of the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Jim Thorpe, gave a lively presentation, pointing out the facts and debunking the myths of the mammal.
Gently spreading out one of the fuit bat’s wings, Gallagher pointed out the intricate arrangement of bone and muscle. “Bats have five muscles in their wings like no other animals do,” she said. “It helps them make tiny little mid-flight adjustments.”
“Bats use sound to locate things,” Gallagher continued. “It’s called echolocation. They make a sound that, when it hits something, it echoes back. They listen to the echo and get a very detailed picture of its surroundings. They can detect sound waves from something as thin as a strand of hair. That’s why it’s not true that bats fly into people’s hair.”
Also, Gallagher noted, bats are not flying mice, and they’re not blind.
“Bats are clean. They spend a lot of time grooming. They can carry diseases, but it’s rare,” she added.
Gallagher said the assumption that bats carry rabies is an “old wives’ tale.” The likelihood of bats carrying rabies is low, but the number one rule is “hands off any wild animal,” she warned.
Gallagher said there are three species of bats that suck blood. They are known as vampire bats and they live only in Central and South America.
“Cow blood is their favorite,” she said.
The nine different kinds of bats that live in Pennsylvania are primarily insect eaters. She showed the crowd a large glass display case containing seven of the bats that are found in the state. “These are the kinds such as the little brown bat and the big brown bat that live in your attic or under your shutters,” she said.
Gallagher pointed out the benefits of bats such as pollinating plants and keeping the mosquito population down. “A single bat eats up to 1,200 mosquitos in a half an hour,” she said.
Since female bats give birth to only one pup per year, and many are killed by wind turbines during their winter migration, Gallagher stressed the importance of protecting them through conservation. “Who would think that by turning lights off in a room you’re not in would help bats,” she said.
“Even if bats give you the heebie-jeebies, they still have a reason to be out there in the environment,” Gallagher said. “I hope you appreciate bats a little more and hope you will do things in your life that will make it a little easier for them.”
Casey Conway, 22, of Shavertown said she came to the event because she was impressed by a presentation the store hosted recently. “They had an eagle and it was so interesting that I decided to come to this.”
“We learned a lot of things,” added Mary Smith, 81, of Kunkle, who also attended the eagle presentation.
Eleven-year-olds Jolene Albrecht, Vegan O’Donnell and Sophia Piccolotti and 4-year-old Lilly O’Donnell, all of Dallas, thought Fruity-Patootie looked like a dog with wings.
“I was always afraid of bats until I saw one up close,” said Sophia. “She’s cute.”
