Bats

As a ranger naturalist at Phantom Ranger Station, I was amazed at how many people still believe the old wives tales of bats being blind and how they get tangled in your hair. And of course, bats are just flying rodents. Not true, not true! Bats are some of the most maligned creatures on earth. And you know what? You wouldn’t want an earth without bats inhabiting it. Some bats can eat as much as half their body weight in insects per night! That includes those nasty mosquitoes, biting gnats, and scorpions (see photo to the left). Bats consume many hundreds of thousands of tons of insects each year. In spite of this, bats are so misunderstood and unappreciated, they are severely endangered creatures.