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A review by kerrianne
America's Neighborhood Bats: Understanding and Learning to Live in Harmony with Them by Merlin D. Tuttle
5.0
Bananas, avocados, dates, figs, peaches, mangoes, cloves, cashews, carob, agave, the baobab tree (of life!): All reliant on bats for survival. And yet at the time this book was written (1988), bats were our most endangered land mammal.*
This little book filled to the brim with bat facts was written by one of the United States' foremost bat scientists, and was written expressly to combat people's (misplaced, unnecessary) fear of bats.
I dig how no-nonsense it is, and how earnest. Tuttle wants everyone to understand how beneficial bats are, how essential to so many ecosystems (from the water to the tallest canopies), and how easily and peacefully humans and bats can coexist.
There's even a section on how to construct your own bat house to attract and safely house bats on your property, + a section at the end called "A Beginner's Key to American Bats," both of which greatly appealed to the bat nerd in me.
It's a hopeful little book, even as Tuttle has seen first-hand how devastating humans can be to creatures they irrationally fear. I'll never forget Tuttle's description of men throwing sticks of dynamite into caves where bats were roosting, sleeping peacefully during winter months, not a harm or a danger to anyone.
That we as humans have tried to valiantly to decimate so many wild species that this earth needs to survive continues to be testament to our inability to be good stewards of the land we often occupy as if it were ours and no one else's.
That's the story with bats, just as it is with so many creatures on this planet: They're in trouble because of us. Because we won't leave them well enough alone.
"Even more important, we need bats whether we like them or not; their loss poses serious, potentially irreversible consequences to the environment that we all must share." -pg. 51
*The most recent data I could find on bats via the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 24 bat species as "Critically Endangered" (facing imminent risk of extinction), 53 others as "Endangered," and 104 bat species as "Vulnerable" to extinction.
[Five stars for the hope we won't ruin everything before it's too late, and for humans like Tuttle who spend their lives fighting for species that aren't always so easy to love.]**
**For the record, I love bats. They're beautiful, and amazing, and whenever I swim at night, they skim and swoop and swim the surface of the water alongside me.
This little book filled to the brim with bat facts was written by one of the United States' foremost bat scientists, and was written expressly to combat people's (misplaced, unnecessary) fear of bats.
I dig how no-nonsense it is, and how earnest. Tuttle wants everyone to understand how beneficial bats are, how essential to so many ecosystems (from the water to the tallest canopies), and how easily and peacefully humans and bats can coexist.
There's even a section on how to construct your own bat house to attract and safely house bats on your property, + a section at the end called "A Beginner's Key to American Bats," both of which greatly appealed to the bat nerd in me.
It's a hopeful little book, even as Tuttle has seen first-hand how devastating humans can be to creatures they irrationally fear. I'll never forget Tuttle's description of men throwing sticks of dynamite into caves where bats were roosting, sleeping peacefully during winter months, not a harm or a danger to anyone.
That we as humans have tried to valiantly to decimate so many wild species that this earth needs to survive continues to be testament to our inability to be good stewards of the land we often occupy as if it were ours and no one else's.
That's the story with bats, just as it is with so many creatures on this planet: They're in trouble because of us. Because we won't leave them well enough alone.
"Even more important, we need bats whether we like them or not; their loss poses serious, potentially irreversible consequences to the environment that we all must share." -pg. 51
*The most recent data I could find on bats via the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 24 bat species as "Critically Endangered" (facing imminent risk of extinction), 53 others as "Endangered," and 104 bat species as "Vulnerable" to extinction.
[Five stars for the hope we won't ruin everything before it's too late, and for humans like Tuttle who spend their lives fighting for species that aren't always so easy to love.]**
**For the record, I love bats. They're beautiful, and amazing, and whenever I swim at night, they skim and swoop and swim the surface of the water alongside me.