(Photo by Craig Hauger, Courtesy of freeimages.com)

by Robert Barossi

Halloween is just a week away so why not a couple of stories involving bats. These often misunderstood creatures are incredibly important and play a major role in their ecosystem. They’re also threatened and/or endangered in many places around the world. On the other hand, in this story out of India, an unexpected species of bat was discovered in the Western Ghats, described as “one of the world’s eight richest biodiversity hotspots.” Volunteers play a role in the program that discovered the bat species, the Eastern Barbastelle, which had previously only been found in temperate climate zones. The project, which included trapping bats and recording their calls, will provide invaluable data about a number of bat species. According to this story out of San Diego, next week, leading up to Halloween, is also National Bat Week. For the occasion, the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Discovery Center held a “Bat Chat,” led in part by  their volunteers. One of the volunteers, Cindy Myers, educated the more than 100 children who participated about many important bat-facts. The knowledge she passed on will hopefully provide an appreciation for these important creatures which the kids will pass on to others and keep with them for the rest of their lives.