Bat Benefits, Solar Streetlights and Cigarette Fires

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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/ECOVIEW
Bats disperse seeds, pollinate plants and are extraordinarily efficient insect predators.

News briefs on bat benefits, overcrowded Tokyo, organic mailbox  solar streetlights and cigarette fires.

Bat Benefits, Solar Streetlights and Cigarette Fires

Batters Up

YET ANOTHER “LOWLY” GROUP OF creatures maligned in folklore but in fact harmless and beneficial are the bats. Bats disperse seeds, pollinate plants and are extraordinarily efficient insect predators. A single gray bat (an endangered species) can eat up to 3,000 insects in one night. But because of their undeserved bad reputation and the superstition that surrounds them, many bats are killed just “to get rid of them,” and the destruction of bat habitat is given little thought. Now a Texas-based, nonprofit organization, Bat Conservation International, has been formed to change the situation. To help, or for information on bats, why they should be saved and how you can peacefully coexist with the fly-by-night mammals, contact Bat Conservation International, Austin, TX.

Fleeing to the Sea

  • Published on Nov 1, 1988
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