Times News Editor Marta Gouger asked me, in light of Halloween weekend, if I could offer a bit about bats.

Bats, like snakes, get little appreciation, and in some cases are not treated or respected like other mammals, or birds for that matter. They are also portrayed as one of the spooky symbols of Halloween.

Bats are our only flying mammals - flying squirrels are gliders. Pennsylvania is home to nine different species of bats but most recently, many of them are in “critical condition.”

The little brown bat, once the most numerous of all our bat species, is on the verge of extinction. Ninety-nine percent of their population is lost because of the introduction of white nose syndrome, which is a fungal infection that irritates the nose area of bats and eventually spreads to the wing membranes.

Over 90% of infected bats die. Most because they store just enough fat to make it through the winter hibernation, but the irritation of white nose syndrome causes them to wake. They eventually leave their hibernacula and fly out into the cold winter to freeze or starve unable to find insect food in the cold spring.

As a youngster, I’ve always had a fascination with bats and enjoyed, at dusk, tossing small pebbles into the air near them, to watch them dart toward “my fake insect.”

The are actually excellent flyers. Speaking of flying, it is amazing that a fur covered animal can even fly. Birds have such light weight bodies, feather coverings, no bladder, and hollow bones. Bats have adapted with a very thin membrane of skin stretched between the modified 5 digits of their “hand.” This thin skin, correctly called the chiropatagium, also is found from the legs to the thin tail.

Bats have very weak legs - very little muscle mass - and because of that are lighter. They then simply hang upside down when resting. They are quite maneuverable in flight and until white nose syndrome, have survived quite well.

Bats rely on echolocation to locate their prey and avoid night time obstacles. They can catch insects in their sharply toothed mouths, but more often than not, they use the membranes of the wings like a catcher’s mitt to snag flying bugs. If the insect is too large to eat on the wing, they’ll land and chew up a larger moth or beetle.

Echolocation is technically the emitting of extremely high-pitched sounds that bounce back signals to their sensitive hearing. The bat’s ears, rather enlarged, have a thin membrane in front of the ear canal to direct the sounds efficiently to their ear drums. This adaptation is called the tragus. This tragus is very important for their echolocation, but also to biologists who can identify the species by this structure.

Most of the small bats have only one young each year. They hang upside down and literally catch the newborn bat as they leave the birth canal. For the first few weeks of their lives, the young cling to mom on her nightly feeding forays.

I was fortunate about 6 weeks ago to arrive home just as dusk was setting in. As I stepped from my truck, I was surprised to see a large bat fly from, what I thought was our home. Indeed, it was. A second-floor plastic window shutter was pulling from the anchor in the bricks at the upper left corner. I got there in time to see a second bat fly out. In the next 10 minutes a total of 15 bats flew out to feed.

This of course intrigued me and I waited there the next night to see the spectacle again. This time, no bats. However, on the evening of Oct. 2, again I waited and watched and low and behold, 12 bats left their hiding place. I have no explanation why they choose that resting spot one day and not the next.

I will tell you that I have seen bats behind shutters a number of times. When I was 11, I filled in on a morning paper route for my vacationing friend for a few weeks, I stumbled across bats disappearing behind the front window shutters of a home on Fairyland Drive. Of course, “Mr. I need to know more about nature guy” got there about a half dozen times to see this happen again and again. I hope I didn’t arouse any suspicions from those residents.

One final bat story, we were invited a long time ago to a summer picnic at a friend’s home in Parryville. As dusk approached, I noticed a bat fly from the roof eave. In the next 20 minutes at least 200 bats flew out into the summer evening. The homeowner later discovered that the paneling put up on the roof rafters inside hid the bats and offered a great place to roost and raise their young.

You and I unfortunately will never see that kind of spectacle again. White nose syndrome has wiped out so many bats. If, somehow the disease is controlled, it still could take over a hundred years for the populations to rebound. What an ecological disaster.

Here is the list of the 9 bat species found in Pennsylvania. Those indicated with an asterisk are listed endangered: Little brown bat*, big brown bat, tricolored bat*, northern long eared bat*, Indiana bat*, small footed bat, silver haired bat, red bat, and hoary bat.

The bat species that migrate south, and generally don’t hibernate in caves, have been less affected by white nose syndrome.

Some bat fallacies: 1. All bats carry rabies - false; occasionally, like some other mammals, one could be rabid. 2. Bats are blind, absolutely false. 3. Bats try to get into your hair so they can make their nests. False of course because they don’t make nests and their echolocation enables them to avoid obstacles, including your head. 4. Bats are rodents and chew wires and things in houses. They are not rodents and don’t gnaw things.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: A young bat is called a (n): A. spar; B. kit; C. pup; D. “Hair raiser.”

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: It is indeed true that it can take about 100 years to form an inch of topsoil. But in drier areas, such as America’s Great Plains, drier conditions there would slow that process considerably.