Thanks to the real-life bat, the reel-life Batman became a superhero. I have vivid childhood memories of the trees near my school from which more bats hung than leaves. During summery dusks, they’d glide away en masse in a procession. I believe, even then as today, people would’ve been susceptible to the viruses spread by their droppings. But such cases were unheard of. Rather, people fed upon this fascinating creature to cure their ailments— like, rheumatism, asthma, and chest pain; and used bat hair to treat shivering during fever.
However, corona has vilified bats as the powerhouse of zoonotic diseases. Tigga Kingston, Co-Chair of the Bat Specialist Group dispelled this misconception in an interview published on Down To Earth website in May 2020. She said that by destroying their natural habitats, “We are breaking down barriers that normally prevent spillover (of viruses) from wildlife hosts to people.” Deforestation immediately exposes us to the hosts which carry corona-like pathogens. Thankfully, our physical interaction with bats is rare. Just try to recall the last time when you spot that sole flying mammal. Contrary to a disease-laden vector, Kingston believes, “Bats are good at suppressing viruses and rarely show clinical signs of sickness even when infected.”
Among the world’s largest bats is the Indian Flying Fox—named due to its uncanny resemblance to a fox—or Greater Indian Fruit Bat. It inhabits the regions nearby waterbodies and human settlements in our subcontinent. It has a yellow-brown mantle, chestnut-brown underparts, and big eyes. The extension of a thin membrane from its toes to hands form its leathery wings.
Most of these vagabonds use sound, i.e., bio-sonar technology to detect preys. This technique is called ‘echolocation’—locating using echos. But the Indian Fruit Bat depends on its strong sense of smell and vision to catch preys. It can see up to 1 kilometer at night and feeds upon fruits and nectar. Since it also damages large fruit farms as a consequence, it is rendered a vermin.
Interestingly, the fruit bat spits out its undigested fruit fiber, often misinterpreted as— defecation through mouth; blame it on its rapid digestive system or inability to digest fibers. Contrarily, fruit bats are great pollinators, seed dispersers, and pest-suppressors. A single fruit bat can disperse about 60,000 seeds per night. Can you imagine how genetically weak our forests would’ve been without them?
There’s also a lucrative business of bat meat in several countries. But the bat population is threated mainly due to habitat-destruction caused by urbanisation and road-widening.
Thankfully, people like the Kabatabandha villagers of Odisha protect fruit bats. In Puliangulam in Tamil Nadu, the flying fox is considered sacred and is blessed by a local spirit called Muniyandi. To my great joy, the fig tree in front of my house in Delhi also shelters these nocturnal visitors.
(Photo credits: Athiya Mahapatra)
(This was first published in the 1-30 November 2021 edition of the Gobar Times.)
An amateur ornithologist and closely follows the avian world.