Bats have a varied diet. Some eat insects, some eat fruit, and some feed on flower nectar. Bats are so important to the pollination of many giant cacti of the desert Southwest, such as saguaro and organpipe, that some of these plants will not produce fruit unless pollinated by bats. Since much Southwestern wildlife is dependent on these desert fruits, bats are key to the survival and interworking of the desert ecosystem.

Eighteen species of bats inhabit Colorado. All are insect-eaters which roost during the day in trees, caves, buildings, and rock crevices and hunt in the dark. The little brown myotis, or little brown bat, (myotis means "mouse-eared") weighs only 1/3 of an ounce, yet one individual can capture up to 600 mosquitoes per hour. The big brown bat is one of the most common bats, both in Colorado and North America. Because it roosts by day in houses, buildings and bridges, the big brown is the bat species most often seen by city-dwellers.

While big and little brown bats hunt on the wing in what we consider true bat style, pallid bats find food on the ground. Flying close to the ground, their social calls low enough to be heard by human ears, pallid bats listen for the activity of insects. Locating prey, they drop down to eat beetles, crickets and even small lizards and mice.

Some bats roost alone but the Brazilian free-tailed bat is not so shy. These bats form colonies numbering as much as 10 million individuals. A mine in Saguache County houses the largest colony of free-tailed bats in Colorado, estimated at 250,000.

"Bats have got to be the best friends of farmers and foresters," says bat expert Dr. Merlin Tuttle, founder and executive director of Bat Conservation International. An Indiana State University study found 150 big brown bats could eat enough cucumber beetles in one summer to prevent the insects laying eggs that would produce 18 million corn root worms, saving farmers $1 billion a year in insect damage. An enormous colony of free-tailed bats in Texas' Bracken Cave consumes 250 tons of insects per night. The tequila industry, which derives its product from agave plants, is dependent upon bat pollination. Without bats, the probability of successful agave seed production drops to 1/3000th of normal.

Despite their beneficial activities, bats remain victims of much bad press. Bats do not become tangled in human hair; certainly an animal weighing only half an ounce would avoid another creature 5000 times its size. For all the hysteria over rabid bats, only half of one percent of all bats are rabid. As long as bats aren't handled, the danger of contracting rabies is extremely remote. Public health records from the U.S. and Canada over a 40-year period indicate only 16 deaths from batborne diseases, compared with more than 10 deaths a year from dog bites in the U.S. alone.

There are countless horror stories of bats burned alive, smoked out or entombed in caves by uninformed people who fear bats. Fortunately, the public's perception of bats is slowly changing. Evening bat flights, like the departure of half a million Brazilian free-tails from beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, are major watchable wildlife tourist attractions in some places. Appreciation and understanding are the key to protecting these valuable and unique animals. "Bats can live just fine with us," says Tutt1e, "if we can learn to live with them."

Next: A Face Only A Mother Could Love

(The information contained in this issue of Colorado's Wildlife Company was accurate at the time of original publication. Situations and circumstances described, staff positions, contact information, and dates of some events may have changed in the interim. Present knowledge and understanding of biological and behavioral facts and information may also be different, now, than presented here.)