Creatures of the night

As dusk sets in, these creatures of the night emerge. Lumbering out of their daytime roosts, they make their way in ones and twos to a water body and thirst quenched, the seemingly laborious flight takes them to their nightly foraging grounds which may be quite a distance away. Others, much smaller, can be seen flitting about showing remarkable dexterity as they twist and turn chasing after an invisible quarry.

The creatures in question, are Bats, a group of animals which are credited with being the only mammals having the
ability of true flight.

Bats in general have down the ages been associated with a certain uneasy mysteriousness by humankind. And their preference for the dark, only added to the eeriness and fear associated with the unknown.

It is therefore not difficult to understand centuries old myths about bats getting entangled in peoples hair or drinking human blood, so graphically illustrated in films of yesteryears depicting the paranormal.

Recent decades have witnessed a great deal of studies that have unraveled the 'mysterious' habits of these animals and their amazing navigational skills in utter darkness without crashing into objects. It was only after studies determined the use of ultrasonic beams to aid their flight path in detecting food sources and avoiding obstacles that yet another marvel in the animal kingdom was established. This singular feature, known as echolocation, caught the imagination of all and later adopted for other disciplines, including defense ones.

Establishing of this feature lead to studies on other animals using sound waves as a mode of communication and thus came to light the techniques used by dolphins and the sonar waves used by elephants, which were earlier thought to be gastric induced rumblings!

Added to this unique natural phenomenon of echo-location was the great propensity of these animals in controlling insect populations. An astounding number of insects are said to be consumed by a single insectivore bat in a day! This one piece of statistics is ample testimony to the incredible benefits
provided for human well-being.

So, while the role of the insectivore bats was acknowledged the lot of the larger fruit eating bats sadly remained uncertain. Differing from their brethren in several ways, that include dietary and other habits, the larger fruit eating bats like the Indian Flying Fox are also shorn off the awe inspiring echolocation aided flight.

Their open roost sites on large trees, unlike the smaller insectivore bats which roost in sheltered dark spaces, often exposed them to bear the brunt of human excesses. Plantations and orchards being particularly attractive to the frugivorous Flying Fox meant further
punishment.

With groves of large trees becoming increasingly confined to pockets within villages and towns, fruit bats tend to congregate at these sites which the Flying Foxes tend to occupy year after year.  And this is where human induced pressures have started to take toll. The accent on 'developing' natural sites within urban landscapes has led to obliteration of many colonies, and this includes the abandonment of one of the more prominent and vibrant colony in the city after a gala jamboree and the attendant fireworks.

Overlooked in this mindless frenzy were the benefits the flying fox too provide. Fruit bats are arguably the foremost seed dispersers in nature. Predominantly feeding on nectar and juices, they chew on fruits and after sucking out the juices, the residue is voided. They also feed on a variety of other fruits, which are often taken back to their roost sites, the seeds of which are thus spread over a very wide area.

Moreover, their predilection for seeking out nectar also makes them an invaluable agent of cross pollination as they move from one source to another, again often at large distances from the original source.

Recent studies have brought to the fore the total degradation of forest tracts after colonies of fruit bats were exterminated from the area. The heartening response to a delightfully novel 'show' by a nature discovery centre propagating the cause for Bat conservation underlines the willingness of people to perhaps view this creature differently.

And to think of it, this very creature was not so long ago declared a 'vermin' under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; to be destroyed at sight!