"sightless spectre of the macabre"

Ere the bat hath flown
His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
-William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Flipping through the Times early this morning in the wake of a nightmare, I came across this article about the ebola virus in African fruit bats, and I was sad to discover these nocturnal mammals once again smeared as carriers of disease. Yes, I am a defender of the bat. I am just nuts about them. Why, you ask? The short answer is that I have lived in both Monteverde, Costa Rica, and Austin, Texas.


In northwest Costa Rica, four hours from the capital of San Jose, the rural mountain town boasts the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which is home to dozens of species of fruit bat. Local and visiting scholars have studied these creatures in their natural habitat since the town's beginnings in the early 1950's. Now, there is even a BatCam! One of the foremost experts is a man called Richard Laval, whom I would often see walking around the roads of the town in the standard gear of all residents--rubber boots, microfiber pants, lightweight cotton shirt, booney hat. We all dubbed him "Batman," less because of his choice of subject than because of his rather unfortunate resemblance to his subject. Plus, the word for "bat" in Spanish is just lovely, and a sight better than its English counterpart: murciélago. Say it with me now: moor-see-a-lah-go!

Each April, the Texas state capital welcomes back the 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats that make their home under the Congress Avenue bridge. These travellers (they breed in the winter in a set of known caves in northern Mexico) have summered in Austin since the reconstruction of the downtown bridge in 1980. The redesign created a series of crevasses in the bridge's underbelly which, it turned out, were perfect roosting spots for bats, and they took up residence in droves. At first there was a huge outcry from Austinites fearful of rabies: they signed petitions and called for eradication of the bats. Enter Bat Conservation International (BCI)--and its head, Dr. Merlin Tuttle--which ran a successful PR campaign on behalf of the beleaguered animals, and the bats were granted permenant asylum. There has not been a single case of bat-related rabies in Austin since, and the winged creatures provide a valuable service to other area residents by consuming 10 to 15 tons of insects each night. In addition, many transportation departments around the country have copied the Congress Avenue bridges design: the structure can help to reestablish wildlife in urban areas with no additional cost to the taxpayer. Now, in the summer, the emergence of the bats at dusk is a huge tourist attraction for the city.

Send a bat e-card to a loved one today!

There is a prize on the line for the reader who can identify the pop culture source of the quotation excerpt that forms the title of this post. (Hint: Think janitor in a zoo.) Scoutfinch, I'm counting on you!