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died ot smoke inhalation.
The bat population, now only 3,000, has never recovered. Visitors to Marvel Cave now, however, are steered around bat roosts.
Deliberate Torching
Sometimes bats are killed intentionally. At a cave in Tennessee, large numbers of bats were torched so they wouldn't scare off tourists.
To protect bats, state and federal bodies have bought some caves and erected gates at their entrances that allow bats in but keep people out. Missouri, for example, has acquired and protected 15 caves.
Some states, however, take a dimmer view of bats. Fifteen have approved the use of a lethal powder against "nuisance bats.” And bats are the only animal DDT can be legally used on, although it often merely sickens them, leaving them susceptible to rabies.
Dan Peacock, of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees state eradication programs, acknowledges that other methods, such as boarding up roosts, are preferable to poisoning bats. “Some states are acting out of fear and lack of information," Peacock said.
From the flying fox bat, with a wingspan of more than 5 feet, to the dainty Philippine bamboo bat, which weighs less than a dime, bats come in all sizes, shapes, and descriptions. There’s the leaf-chinned bat, the hog-nosed bat, the hairy fruit-eating bat, the spotted bat, and the Mexican freetailed bat.
Some bats' faces look like mice, while the face of one species resembles a dog. Even their ears vary greatly, ranging from small flaps in some species to the two-inch winglike ears of the spotted bat.
Although bats do have eyesight, their hearing is probably the most important feature of bats found in this country. It is part of a sonar system superior to any radar developed by man. By projecting sounds with its larynx and listening for them to bounce back, a bat navigates, locates obstacles, and catches its dinner. Some species can even choose favorite sizes and species of insects in flight by means of this sonar, known as echolocation.
Some bat species dine solely on insects. Others comb the waters, swooping
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