The bat, which is clinging to a small crack in the stone facade in front of the window, has not moved since it was discovered in December.
When exactly the creature opted for its long winter nap is unknown. It could have hung tucked away for weeks, looking no different from a curled leaf that, oddly enough, is resistant to persistent convictions of wind and gravity.
Leaves and all living things still succumb to the requirements of nature. However, a series of summer days did not bring any movement to the crib. At the moment the bat remains significantly shrunk, ends its long annual sleep and hopefully holds out against the big sleep.
It is not easy to make a living in an unnatural world.
Earth day is Thursday. In the half century since the people first called for the environment in 1970, the planet has evolved from compulsory to crisis to emergency, the last name recently given by Scientific American magazine.
The globe has warmed up. The poles have melted. Plant and animal life in the wild has crashed. The forests have shrunk and burned. The mega-drought has spread in the western United States. The oceans have acidified the currents and slowed down weather conditions. Plastics have destroyed the oceans and numerous land surfaces. Microplastics have entered living bodies. And a pandemic, possibly due to formerly isolated Asian bats, has gripped civilization.
One person inspecting the animal that makes the heels above the head sleepy praised the bats for their work as a means of controlling insects. Almost in the same breath, however, she apologetically admitted that her husband, a gardener, has a tendency to hit and kill bats that dare to flutter too close to hatless heads.
While killing a single bat may seem unreasonable to some, the receding of bats from the evening sky goes unnoticed and uncontrolled by almost all. Humans have killed millions of bats in North America, including some critically endangered species by wiping out their habitat, spreading a deadly fungus, and shrinking the base of flying food.
The world that the bat faces in the home is not as rich in life-sustaining foods as that in which their ancestors responded to the wake-up call of spring. Researched locations around the world have seen an estimated 9 percent decline in insects per decade.
An analysis of the data carried out by the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research last year showed that insect loss worldwide was not as extreme as some of the local and regional reports advertised by the media in recent years would suggest.
Even so, the devastation is “extremely serious,” the study’s lead author, Roel Van Kling, told the BBC.
“Over 30 years it means a quarter fewer insects,” said Van Kling.
Flying insects that are devoured by bats, birds and dragonflies were the most severely affected by losses, according to the study. In addition, the US Midwest has been named as one of the places where the decline in insects has been above average.
Turkey time
Young wild turkey hunters aged 17 and under finish their two-day shot today during the special youth season that opened nationwide on Saturday.
The traditional season opened on Saturday and will last until May 23 in all northeastern counties, where the start and finish will be delayed by a week. Hunting hours last half an hour before sunrise until noon until May 2nd and half an hour before sunrise until sunset from May 3rd until the end of the season.
The daily limit is one bearded bird, the season limit is two bearded birds.
outdoor@dispatch.com
