"Children of the night."
"What music they make."
That’s right,
we’re talking about
the nocturnal flying mammals,
bats.
Besides being a source of
Halloween inspiration,
the disguise of a certain wealthy vigilante,
and one of nature’s most accomplished
pest control workers,
bats have gotten a bad rap.
Outbreaks and pandemics have resulted
in bats making headlines,
due to their ability to spread viruses
like SARS and MERS.
This has made them an easy target
for those who wish to take bats
out of the picture.
So what if,
like a bunch of villagers mobbing together
to take on a vampire,
we decided to exterminate
our planet’s bat population?
Bats have had a questionable reputation
at best,
even before their links to pandemics.
Some people have even suggested
that we kill all the bats
to protect our health.
But before you get your pitchforks
and torches ready,
let's allow them to plead their case.
Bats are a diverse bunch.
With over 1,400 species,
they come in all shapes and sizes,
ranging from the dime-sized bumblebee bat
to the black flying fox,
which has a wingspan of up to 1.8 m (6 ft).
"Oh, black flying fox,
with your 1.8 m wingspan!
Please be gentle with me."
While some bats are carnivorous,
most eat insects.
And they are more than earning their keep.
It’s estimated that 99% of crop pests
are controlled, to some extent,
by bats.
Studies suggest that the insect eating-bats
provide a service to U.S. agriculture
that is worth at least
and could be as much as
And that doesn't include the value
of everything bats do,
like controlling insects
that affect the lumber industry.
A single colony of
150 brown bats in Indiana
can eat around 1.3 million insects each year.
These bad boys,
who are little brown bats,
can eat 4-8 g (0.1 - 0.3 oz) of insects
each night during their active season.
So what does all this mean?
Well, let’s say pests are decimating the crops
on your farm.
If you decided to get rid of
our nocturnal comrades,
it would cause an estimated
$74 of damage, per acre,
to your crops, in the U.S.
So if we didn't have any bats,
the damage to 378 million acres of farmland
could cost us about
And that’s just the money side of losing bats.
Bats eat insects,
with mosquitos being
a particularly favorite dish.
So if we killed all the bats,
we would see a lot more mosquitoes,
and also a rise in the diseases
we get from them.
Malaria, dengue fever, and other health problems
would be more common,
and we would need more healthcare resources
to deal with them.
This may lead to a decrease in
tourism in some areas,
because of the higher chances of
getting malaria or dengue fever.
On top of an almost biblical plague of insects,
you would start to see food shortages.
Bats pull double duty
by acting as important pollinators
and seed spreaders.
The agave plant relies
solely on bats for pollination.
In deserts
bats pollinate cactus plants.
Without bats,
cacti may slowly disappear.
And since cacti store water,
this would lead to water shortages
and drier ecosystems.
The rainforest would struggle to regrow
without bats spreading seeds.
This could lead to the loss of habitat
for other animals,
and the slow decrease of rainforest trees.
Other forests around the world
would start to disappear too.
Without these important animals,
fruits would be damaged,
and without bats to pollinate them,
fruits may even disappear from grocery stores.
Think about it,
a world with no bananas
or avocados!
I don’t want to live in that world.
So the bottom line is,
we need bats to continue
the valiant work they’re doing.
In fact,
we may even be able to learn from them.
Bats have a tolerance to viruses
that surpasses all other mammals.
Why are they able to carry
so many different diseases
and not have to take a single sick day?
Well, that question has been
perplexing scientists for a very long time.
While it may seem like bats are more dangerous
than they are helpful,
they are extremely important
for our ecosystems.
When we’re fast asleep,
they’re out there fighting the good fight.
Fly on bats,
fly on.
Nature is full of natural pest controllers,
and without them,
we’d be in serious trouble.
We’d have to take on the fight against
insects like mosquitoes, by ourselves.
Now, what if we managed
to kill all the mosquitoes in the world?
Well, that’s a story for another WHAT IF.