Training a bat to fly

If you need to do flight training with a bat, put the mite in your hand if you can't get it to hang from your finger. Drop your hand and see if the bat panics enough to flap. Just make sure it doesn't fall, and have something soft beneath it.

Halloween is around the corner. It isn't marked here, so I will see it through photo galleries and in news reports. I expect to see the usual novelties: masks from movies, zombie make-up and probably one or two US politicians. I also expect to see the four standard stereotypes, pumpkins, witches, ghosts and bats. I'm going to riff on the bats. The idea suggests itself to me because of a couple of exchanges on Facebook.

I am not scared of bats, in fact I am quite fond of them. My mother was part of a 'bird network'. When a live bat was found, it came to her. Because I had a large desk, with some glass-fronted shelves, the bats were kept in my room while she tried to rehabilitate them or rear them. That was where the flight training took place.

Bats are not the terrifying things they are made out to be. Mostly they look like little dogs with wings. The wings make them ungainly, and watching them crawl, one can almost share their sense of embarrassment.

They are utterly fragile creatures. They have light bones that break easily. Force feeding them is risky as their jaws might break. If you ever need to feed a bat make a paste of high protein mash and meal worms and / or soft fruit depending on the subspecies and rub it around their mouths. They don't like the feeling and lick it off. If you are lucky enough to get one that is willing to feed, they have long tongues which can lap up morsels from teaspoons. Water can be given with a small syringe, but very gently. In addition to the danger of breaking its jaw, you don't want to drown it.

The membranes of their wings are delicate as well and easily torn. Spray-on skin does the trick if I remember right.

Here's the good news. Bats really don't want to get tangled in your hair. They may swoop close to your head, but they won't get too close. I know this from flight training. If you need to do flight training with a bat, put the mite in your hand if you can't get it to hang from your finger. Drop your hand and see if it panics. Just make sure it doesn't fall, and have something soft beneath it.

Bats can get habituated, so after a few days of handling, it shouldn't be concerned when you pick it up after its flight. By the way... they like having their noses and heads rubbed.

I'm not sure where the fear of bats comes from.

One possible explanation is that insects hover around people in the dark, so bats have to fly in low to snatch a bite to eat. That flapping, the long, shrill peep of echolocation and the dark, is probably the reason. People telling other people is the reason why this sort of misperception spreads.

What are the chances of getting rabies from a bat? Slender. They can't fly if rabies disorients them.

Actually bats are threatened by people. Light and noise pollution and pesticides are doing the job of getting rid of them. Why should we want them gone? They eat insects. They spread the seeds of pulpy fruit which they excrete. They are useful. If you don't like vampire bats, don't hang around South America or Mexico.

Western cultures and stereotypes make them into objects of fear, but there is no real reason to fear them. Better to get to know them and find out why they are important in the ecology of your particular area.