The Glendora Public Library hosted an event called ‘Twilight Flight: The Hidden World of Bats” March 14. Local experts from the Southern California Bat Group were invited to give an informative presentation.
The SoCal Bat Group is a regional group from the California Bat Working Group that works in spreading awareness about the vital role bats play as key stone species.
These groups consist of passionate individuals who work with bats through conservation work, education, management and research.
Just in time for Bat Appreciation Day, one of the volunteers, Naomi D’Alessio showcased an informative presentation of her commitment to this group and educated those who are unaware of these nocturnal pollinators.
The audience was given a bat quiz and survey to participate in.
“Almost everything we learn about bats is false,” D’Alessio said. “I don’t understand why we are so scared of them, they are so cute.”
In the presentation D’Alessio challenged all stereotypes about bats being scary and instead enamoured the audience with cute photos of different bats such as the Mexican free-tailed bat to her favorite, the Pallid bat.
D’Alessio delivered an in depth lecture of the different types of bats and their roles as pollinators for many plants such as agave, bananas, guava and watermelon.
D’Alessio also shared the emergent fungal disease affecting bats today, but when asked about who their number one predators are, she had an unexpected answer.
“Bats’ top predators are humans,” she said. “Humans are hunting bats at an alarming rate because they think they have Covid or they are scared of them.”
Reaching the end of the presentation D’Alessio shared an audio of a bat’s echolocation chirp both normal and slowed down.
The audience gasped when they heard the high-pitched chirp bats make.
These chirps exceed beyond the audible frequency at which humans can hear which is normally 20 kHz to 200 kHz.
A normal bat squeak was almost inaudible for the human ear, but when slowed down it sounded like a distinct high pitched bird chirp.
There was a giveaway at the end of the presentation and whoever won, received a bat box.
The Glendora Public Library offers a variety of books and movies that include bats and are available to check out with a library card.
