From Halloween horrors to ecological heroes: Bats, the misunderstood marvels of the night

🦇✨ Bats: From Halloween Horrors to Ecological Heroes! These misunderstood mammals are vital for pollination, pest control and ecosystem health. Let’s celebrate their crucial role this Bat Week! 🌍💚 #Bats #Conservation #BatWeek2024

This June, I participated in a six-week course run by the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT)—a non-governmental UK organisation solely devoted to conserving bats and their habitats. I aimed to learn more about these enigmatic and oft-misunderstood mammals, primarily to understand their significance as “keystone species.” This conservationist’s term is defined as a “species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance.” 

Keystone species can maintain the structure of ecological communities, impacting other organisms and affecting their numbers and variety, making them essential entities in the health of ecosystems overall. Bats are typically many positive things, including essential seed dispersers and foresters, pollinators, pest controllers, imperative nutrient cyclers, gene flow facilitators (carrying pollen and seeds between plants, spreading genetic material which supports plant diversity and overall health), biomimicry inspirations (learning from nature’s forms and emulating them in sustainable scientific designs), as well as cultural and economic symbols. 

However, for centuries, bats have been much maligned, perceived as “evil spirits”, vampires, and harbingers of death. Could this be a hangover from our pagan past? As I moved through each week of the BCT course, I learned these animals are unique and fascinating creatures; in times when they are under considerable threat (particularly from humans), I learned there is much more to them than their status as icons of Halloween horror. 

Bat Reputation? 

If we review history, the belief systems of humans have always been tightly connected to animals, often symbolised in myths and stories. In these narratives, animals are frequently perceived as symbols of “good” or “evil”, depending on each specific culture. For example, Asia-Pacific cultures view them as symbols of good luck and prosperity. 

In contrast, Western societies have historically seen bats as ominous creatures, tied to evil spirits, vampires and harbingers of death. Their elusive, nighttime behaviour and unusual appearance—such as their wings and echolocation—contributed towards this prejudice, on top of cultural myths, fear of the unknown and their nocturnal habits. This may have contributed to a base fear of these wonderful mammals. 

Nature’s Vital Yet Misunderstood Creatures

Some bat species have been associated with modes of disease transmission, such as rabies, perhaps overshadowing their critical ecological roles (such as pest control and pollination). Over the centuries, these factors have amalgamated to produce an enduring stigma that obscures the factual nature, disposition and importance of bats within ecosystems.

Today, bats remain misunderstood creatures, unfairly vilified in folklore that still resonates today, renewed in recent years in relation to transmissible diseases. Bats have been negatively described as anything from “terrifying” to “germ taxis” to “carriers of deadly viruses.” The course run by BCT is organised into six sessions covering a different facet of bats as we understand them. Below is a quick summary of some of the fascinating aspects I learned.

Bats are often misunderstood as scary creatures. In reality, they are essential for our ecosystems and keep pests at bay.

Week 1: What is a Bat

Bats are flying mammals of the biological order Chiroptera, meaning "hand-wing." These hand-come-wings take the form of elongated fingers which support their wing membranes, providing the thrust to move swiftly through the air and change direction in mere milliseconds. Their navigation is built on their in-built echolocation function, described further below. Bats are typically found worldwide, barring extreme desert or polar regions. As mentioned, they are critical for pollination, insect control and other vital roles in ecosystems. 

Week 2: Flight 

On Earth, bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight, accomplished through their unique wing configuration. These wings are constructed with a thin membrane of skin stretched between their elongated finger bones and the body, permitting extraordinary manoeuvrability and velocity. This adaptation allows bats to elude predators and access varied food sources within their habitats.

Week 3: Echolocation

Bats employ echolocation (the locating of objects by reflected sound) as a primary navigation and hunting method. Through the innate, speed-of-sound process of emitting supremely high-frequency sounds and listening for their returning echoes, bats can “build a picture” of the location, size and shape of objects around them—including their prey. This is one example of the aforementioned “biomimicry” that researchers can use for technological advances—in this case, to generate images using devices equipped with microphones and speakers (see Fig.1 below). Bats use echolocation to rapidly traverse landscapes, sometimes in complete darkness. This skill underpins their status as proficient hunts in nocturnal environments. 

Fig.1: Phys.org / University of Glasgow

Week 4: Roosts and Habitats

Bats roost in diverse habitat types, including caves, trees and human-made structures. Their various roosts protect them from predators and severe or harsh weather conditions. Generally, they hold a preference for locations that offer temperature regulation and humidity control—aspects that are critical for their reproductive success and overall survival rates.

Week 5: Diet and Habitat

Bats have exceptionally varied diets, consisting primarily of insects, fruits, nectar and small vertebrates. Insectivorous bats are reasonably common in numerous ecosystems, assisting in the control of insect populations. Meanwhile, fruit-eating species are vital for seed dispersal and pollination; their habitats shift from forests and wetlands to urban areas, accommodating them to flourish in multiple settings.

Week 6: Threats and Conservation

Bats face numerous existential threats, encompassing habitat loss, climate change and diseases such as White-nose syndrome. These cumulative aspects have contributed to declining bat populations worldwide. However, conservation initiatives are ongoing to safeguard bat habitats, heighten awareness about their ecological significance and implement measures to mitigate the impacts of threats they face. According to BCT (with information from IUCN), the following species are on the “red” conservation list:

Near Threatened

• Nathusius’ pipistrelle

• Leisler’s bat

Vulnerable

• Barbastelle

• Serotine

Endangered

• Grey long-eared bat

Ultimately, at minimum, bats need maternity roots, hibernation sites, reliable food supplies and a stable reliable climate to survive. When we threaten these life-supporting necessities, often all contained within their habitats, bat populations begin to suffer. This can include loss of trees, removal of hedgerows, demolition of houses, changing of farming methods and pesticides—but to name a few. However, there are relatively straightforward solutions to aid their cause.  

Restoring habitats and planting trees is key to bat conservation: Healthy ecosystems provide shelter, food, and breeding grounds for these vital creatures. 

Supporting Bats Through Habitat Restoration

Conservation organisations like 9Trees hold an overarching aim to conserve and restore natural habitats, providing fundamental support to potentially vulnerable (yet vital) species such as bats that flourish in healthy, diverse ecosystems. Across the UK, 9Trees works with landowners to plant native trees and establish small, sustainable woodlands in areas where ecological richness is limited. These woodlands are carefully structured to support a wide range of wildlife, offering features critical for bats, including roosting sites, seasonal food availability and protected areas. 

Bats—known for their contributions to pest control, pollination and seed dispersal—benefit significantly from these regenerated habitats where trees and biodiversity are thoughtfully introduced to form intricate, interdependent ecosystems. Such efforts align with broader conservation initiatives to stabilise bat populations facing pressures from habitat degradation and climate change, underscoring the function of these flying mammals within these backdrops and underscoring the wider ecological gains from biodiversity-centred initiatives

What can I do to assist bats?

You can support bat conservation at home through several practical actions—particularly if you have your own garden. In this case, limiting the use of pesticides and herbicides is critical, as these chemicals can dramatically reduce the insect populations that bats depend on for sustenance. Next, assembling a more bat-friendly garden can further improve their habitats; consider planting native flowers that bloom at night, which can attract nocturnal insects and provide a valuable food source. 

To minimise light pollution that can disorient bats during their nocturnal activities, switching off unnecessary outdoor lights or using motion sensors can be highly beneficial. Moreover, adapting outdoor features with natural landscape elements like hedgerows or trees can also assist bats in navigation while providing shelter. If space allows, leaving dead trees or erecting bat boxes can create ideal roosting sites​. 

Safeguarding gardens from pets—especially cats—is crucial as they can present a substantial threat to bats. Keeping cats indoors or in enclosed areas can prevent them from preying on these flying mammals​. Finally, taking part in local initiatives such as Bat Week, occurring annually in October (ending today), can elevate awareness and promote further conservation action. Overall, engaging with community events and sharing knowledge about bats can contribute towards dispelling myths and promoting greater appreciation for these essential creatures​

BCT has a handy PDF on simple measures that can be taken to encourage bat populations in the UK. 

You can help bats by limiting pesticides and planting native flowers. Small changes in your garden create safe spaces and food sources for these important pollinators. 

Fun Facts

• Over 1,300 species of bats have been discovered across the globe. This makes them the second biggest class of mammals (after rodents). 

• Not every bat hangs upside down. Some species, such as the lesser short-tailed bat, have been observed crawling on the ground and can take off horizontally.

• Similarly to humans, bats give birth to only one baby at a time (except in the case of twins), also known as a "pup." This singular offspring demands much parental care and attention, making bat parenting particularly devoted.

• Bats are capable of consuming up to 1,200 mosquitoes in a single hour, making them superlative natural pest controllers. Even a minuscule common pipistrelle can eat around 3,000 midges, mosquitoes and other small flies in a single night. 

• The world’s smallest bat, the bumblebee bat (or, the Kitti’s Hog-nosed bat), is roughly the size of a jellybean and weighs less than a penny!

• Bats are critical for pollination, with over 500 plant species—including mangoes, bananas and agave (used to make tequila)—dependent on them.

• Some bats have been found to live up to 40 years—a tremendously long lifespan for such a tiny mammal.

• Vampire bats share their food with others in their colony—if one bat can’t find a meal, its associates have been found to regurgitate some blood to share.

By Neil Insh, Researcher at 9Trees