Town Crier Articles

 

At October's noon talk, New Town resident (and Board Chair), Jack Espinal, spoke about one of his passions - bats.

 

Jack’s interest in bats began with a childhood visit to Moaning Cave In California. His first bat acquaintance was Juri, a fruit bat. We learned some bats are mammals that hibernate during the winters in caves and or migrate, depending on the species.  

 

 

We saw an informative presentation with two pictures in particular of Austin, Texas. That city has a large population of bats that residents and visitors line up at dusk to watch the flock emerge and fly over a bridge to begin their hunt for a meal of flying insects.

 

Jack reassured us that while vampires were not real, vampire bats are. However, they aren’t in the United States and usually bite hooved animals in Mexico and Central America where they live. Researchers have discovered that vampire bats have an anticoagulant in their saliva. Another bat fact that needs more research is bats rarely get cancer. Scientists have discovered they have a gene that suppresses the disease.

 

Of the 1,500 bat species. 30% are endangered. Some things we can all do to protect bats are don’t use pesticides, leave dead trees on the ground, and don’t hunt bats.