October is, no surprise,
official Bat Appreciation Month. There are more than 1,300 species of bats
worldwide; they range from cute to strange to scary; they aid farming by eating
insects, thus reducing the need for pesticides; they pollinate plants; and, according
to Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation
International, they are gentle, cuddly
creatures with off-the-charts intelligence and sophistication. Tuttle has just
written The Secret Lives of
Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals (Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, $34.00 CDN), which begins with his first bat cave exploration as a
teenager, when dozens of gray bats landed on him, seeking places to hide. Many
people would have run screaming from the cave, but Tuttle was captivated, as
readers of this book will be as he explains his fascination.
No comments:
Post a Comment