We can’t wait until we can all travel like the free-tails again. Until then, we hope this look into the bats’ scrapbook has satiated some of your wanderlust.
Vaccine musings
Driving home, grateful and tired after waiting in the freezing rain for vaccine number one at Delco, we saw a banner on a small home’s fence. It read “Be Kind to All Kind,” and although recognizing it as a vegan phrase normally referring to livestock, we immediately thought of poor freezing-cold bats that chose to overwinter here in Austin.
In the shadows for centuries and traditionally blamed for everything under the sun, we now hear (even on NPR) premature speculation that blames bats (as a whole) for this pandemic. This based solely on the suggestion that a not-so-similar viral relative long ago passed through one species of Asian bat and moved on to another host half a century ago. It also ignores the fact that previously unknown viruses are found everywhere one looks, and no amount of research into the origin of this one will predict the next disease to threaten our dominance of the planet.
Regardless of the origin, this is a human-caused disease that humans allowed to spread and disrupt so much of our daily lives.
We applaud the scientists who so quickly found a vaccine that will turn the tide in our struggles against this, the latest in a long series of zoonotic viruses.
Funding a rapid-response development and delivery of future vaccines is one imperative to fight future threats. Refining the mechanism for getting them into people’s arms is equally important, to eliminate inequities and protect the most vulnerable.
Hyperbole demonizing bats in order to fund “virus hunters” will only distract from these imperatives.
Most of all, respect for wildlife and natural systems must become a priority for the human race, and will prove to be the key to our survival on this planet. Our unrelenting exploitation and constant scapegoating of nature could prove to be the undoing of this incredible experiment we call life.
So, bats need our kindness now more than ever, even as our locals hunker down in their cold bridge crevices and hope to survive this latest arctic blast.
Show them some compassion. If you venture out during this cold-snap, watch for “fall-out” of cold-stunned bats dropping onto hike and bike trails. Bring a paper sack with you and gently nudge them into it with a boot. Treat them as you would any other neighbor nowadays; don’t breathe on them or barehand them. We’ll be happy to warm them up and keep them until the weather breaks. See our Found a Bat page for instructions on how to safely contain them before you call us.
Each individual act of compassion contributes to the cure for this planet.
