WEST FORK : Devil’s Den event busts bat myths
Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2008
WEST FORK — It’s better than bug spray.
The average bat at Devil’s Den State Park savors mosquitos, and the winged creature can consume up to 4, 000 insects a night.
“They eat the bugs that bug us,” Rebekah Spurlock, an interpretive park ranger, told a group that gathered Saturday at the park’s visitor’s center.
Bats also eat bugs that eat crops, helping save our food and clothes, Spurlock said.
“They won’t steal your hair, or bite you and turn you into a vampire,” she said.
Focused on children’s activities, the morning program was part of the park’s 19 th annual Bat-O-Rama, which ends today with a hike to the park’s 50-foot-deep bat cave and a session on bat houses — think bird houses — and how to build them.
There are about 900 species of bats worldwide, and Devil’s Den boasts two: Indiana and Ozark big-eared, so named because its 1-inch long ears make up about one-third of its body length. Both species are endangered, Spurlock said.
Vampire bats don’t live at the park, Spurlock said. These bats live in Central America, and they make small cuts on chickens and cows and lap the animals’ blood. Vampire bats don’t drain the animals completely of blood, she told the group.
Some people may think of bats as flying rats, but bats are mammals, Spurlock said. As such, they are susceptible to rabies, but it’s another myth that all bats carry the disease, she said.
“It’s not any more likely that a bat that bites you will have rabies than a dog, a raccoon or your little brother,” Spurlock said, eliciting giggles from the children.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly, but they can’t generate enough power to lift off the ground by flapping their wings liked birds, Spurlock said.
Like hang-gliders, they need elevation to fly, she said, which is why they sleep upside down and have to climb a tree or post if they fall to the ground.
To find bugs and their way out of the caves, bats use something similar to sonar, Spurlock said.
Another myth: Bats aren’t blind. They see very well, Spurlock said.
Somewhere in the park, the nocturnal bats slept during Spurlock’s presentation. But 20 bats flew out of the visitor’s center, anyway.
The children, with help from their parents, put them together out of foam, with sticks tied to the bats.
Geneva Ruff of Fayetteville brought her daughters Savanah, 10, and Alyssa, 4, to the event.
Ruff said the family frequently comes to the park, about 17 miles south of West Fork on Arkansas 170 in Lee Creek Valley. This was their second time coming to the bat festival, though rain interrupted Friday’s program: listening to the bat’s echolocation, which sounds much like chirping.
Savanah Ruff was sure she saw some bats despite the rain.
Jodie Gilbert of Tulsa brought sons Jakob, 6, and Caleb, 3, to Saturday morning’s program because the boys thought it sounded fun.
It was also the first Bat-O-Rama for Chris Fuller and wife, Deborah, who brought their son Kameren, 3, from Benton in Saline County. Chris Fuller praised the program’s educational value and shared his excitement at having been deep inside a cave. “It’s something in summertime to keep the mind working,” Fuller said.
To contact this reporter: awallworth@arkansasonline. com
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