UP IN THE SKY, over by the horizon, on a brisk October evening? You see one, two, and then a few: They're bats, and if you're standing in certain wilder corners of California, there will be more to see. The flying mammals are the stuff of Halloween legend, and the stars of more than a few horror films, but the fact is this: They bring so much to the natural world, serving a number of important roles (yep, noshing on delicious insects is one of their notable traits). How best to honor these soaring superstars? They don't need medals around their tiny necks, because such a weighty honor would only weigh them down. Rather, we humans throw a multi-day occasion called...
BAT WEEK... each year, and it always happens at the end of October. You can tune your own sonar senses into the Bat Week online HQ, which is tasty info (though if the info is as tasty to us as a moth is to a bat is up for discussion). The "Why Bats Matter" section brims with cool background into what bats like to eat, how they see ("good" is the word), and how big they can grow (some can sport a wingspan of "six feet," wow wow wow). And if you have time to flap by the National Park Service's social pages, you'll find several nifty entries on everything bat-mazing, from bat guano to a deeper look at what makes a bat's wing so darn powerful.
THE SOAR-HIGH CELEBRATION... concludes on Halloween each year. Get up, up, up on your sky-flying facts about the amazing bat now.
