Belowground, a ghost bat. Here, the hunted; there, the hunters. Animals that fear; animals to be feared. Serendipitous symbols partitioned from cursed ones. If the bats in the Nocturnal House turned and quivered, surely that was because they recognized the fright skittering in your eyes and were pulled—by some predatory impulse within—to beat against the wire, hungry to meet the fear.
I kept coming back to the memory of those ghost bats, their trembling and my own, while reading a new book by Daniel T. Blumstein, an ecologist at UCLA. Looking at how different animal populations apprehend and respond to alarming stimuli in their environment the paw prints of a rapacious meat eater, say , Blumstein argues that fear itself represents an evolutionary high-wire act.
To thrive, animals need to be adequately alert to perilous dangers, but not so terrified that their foraging, rest, and social relations are unduly impaired. Foolhardy animals perish, but overly trepidatious individuals can likewise fail to pass on their genes, because of starvation, stress, and isolation.
The ability to identify the right things to be afraid of is a heritable trait in some species. Across the animal kingdom, Blumstein emphasizes, the experience of being afraid shares physical commonalities, including chemical pathways in the body and muscular reflexes.
Clearly, The Nature of Fear is a book for this moment. Dread is all around, manifold and constant during the coronavirus pandemic, of course. We transmit the virus by virtue of being warm-blooded hosts—vulnerable, as animals, to one another. As the pandemic brings into focus our biological fragility, the time seems apt to examine the nature of human fear through the lens of, well, nature. In recent months, many more people than me have come to fear bats for a new reason. Though the genetic pathway of the virus seems highly likely to have devolved from a specific, ancestral bat virus, SARS-CoV-2 mutated before being transmitted to humans—to date, no bat has been found carrying the virus that infects people.
Indonesian authorities have gassed and burned caged bats in markets. Bats in India have been dislodged from their roosts. Bats have been demonized. Bat-fear already had a template. Where does the line fall between instinctive fears and those acquired via culture? In one fascinating chapter of The Nature of Fear , we discover that certain shapes and objects sharpen attention and arouse innate fears in a variety of animals, even if the distinct threats represented by those contours have never been encountered.
Humans pick out the serpentine squiggle of a snake from fuzzy images, for example, far more accurately than they can pinpoint other camouflaged creatures. Other primates can be born watchful of snakes even if they spend their entire life in a laboratory. Follow her on Twitter and her website for more batty insights! Since its inception in the eighth and ninth century, Halloween has been celebrated in countries around the world. University of Sydney experts weigh in on the festival's origins and its rising popularity in Australia.
University home. Current students. Staff intranet. Type to search. All content. There's plenty of reasons we should be friendly, not fearful, of bats. There are more than 1, species. Flying foxes are great at just hanging out. They are the only mammals capable of true, self-powered flight. They're better than mosquito spray. Bats have diverse diets and they can be nectivorous nectar-eating , frugivorous fruit-eating or insectivorous insect-eating.
Hence, they play an important role in the ecosystem by pollinating flowers, dispersing seeds, and controlling insect populations. Singapore has about 25 species of bats, out of more than bat species in the world! These bats are all native to our tropical island. We also have some interesting bats such as the Greater False Vampire Bat Megaderma lyra which are not actual vampires! Our native bats help to pollinate the flowers of some of our important food crops and favourite food - durians, bananas and petai beans.
The bats also sustain and regenerate our precious rainforests by pollinating flowers and dispersing their seeds so that new plants can grow. Insectivorous bats feed on many kinds of insects, and help to keep their population in check. Cave Nectar bat pollinating a banana flower left and petai flower right.
Generally, bats can be found across our island, wherever there is food and suitable roosting spots. Some bats have adapted to our urban spaces and can be seen flying through our streets from dusk till dawn. Bats will fly by to take a drink from canals right after they wake up! If you come across bats that are injured, distressed or trapped, call our Animal Response Centre at and we will send professionals who are trained in handling and caring for wildlife to assist you.
Please avoid handling the bat yourself as this may cause further stress or injury to the animal. The bat may also bite in self-defence. Please refrain from putting food out to feed bats. Bats have sufficient naturally occurring food that is healthier for them than processed human food.
They play an important role as pollinators and seed dispersers of plants in our green spaces. Feeding of bats will lead to them becoming dependent on humans for survival, as well as affect the regeneration of our rainforests. Feeding of all wildlife in Singapore is also prohibited under the Wildlife Act. There are ways to deter bats from entering your premises and being in close contact with people.
However, bats should be left alone if they are seen in a garden or outdoors, and if they are not causing any inconvenience. They are a part of the ecosystem and will come and go on their own.
By understanding the important ecological role that bats play, we can live harmoniously with the wildlife found in our City in Nature. Most people are not aware that they share their neighbourhood with bats, as the mammals spend a lot of time flying around looking for food.
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