Bats!!!

Recently scrolling through my youtube videos I stumbled upon a clip that I had filmed last year during a visit  to  my long time friend, Dr. Sayak Sovan Dutta’s house in  Hari Navi. It was evening time and there were bats coming out from their daylong slumber out for the night!

But then , it is a matter of thought that such sights are becoming rare with the passage of time as observed by Sayak, ‘’As a child ,I would see many such bats flying out during the evening time but now-a-days their numbers have decreased a lot’’.

• Bats are classified in the mammalian order.
• After rodents, bats are the most diverse and abundant order amongst mammals, with  > 2000 different species described.
• The wing development is the unique characteristic shared by all bats, giving them the power of true flight and also distinguishing them from all other mammalian orders. The wing consists of two layers of very elastic skin stretched between the finger-bones (phalanges) with little or no interconnecting tissue. This membrane usually extends down to the ankle (carpal) joint of the hind leg and in most bats also encloses the tail to form an elastic pouch of skin, known as the inter femoral membrane or uropatagium.
• At least 73 species of bats have been described from the Indo-Pak region.

• Bats can be divided in two main groups (sub-orders):

1.    the fruit bats or flying foxes known as Megachiroptera.

2.    the insect-eating or smaller bats known as Microchiroptera.

• In India seven species occur, from the relatively small Short-nosed Fruit Bat or Cynopterus Sphinx, which is quite a pest of fruit gardens around Mumbai, to the large Flying Fox, Pteropus giganteus.

• Another species named Pteropus has been recorded from Assam and the Andaman Islands, while there are two species of intermediate-sized fruit bats belonging to the genus Rousettus which roost in comparatively dark caves or similar man-made excavations such as cliff temples or deep open wells.
• Two other little-known fruit bats just come into the area from northeastern Assam, the Dawn Sal (Eonycteria spelaea), specialized to feed upon pollen and nectar, and Blanford's Fruit Bat or (Sphaerias blan- ford), is unique among fruit bats because it has no tail and only has a vestigial inter femoral membrane.  

A burgeoning human population, loss of natural habitat, poaching, hunting etc are all responsible for the decreasing numbers of these creatures . India is one of the most populous countries in the world and it was inevitable that man come into conflict with other animals for resources. A number of species are rated as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable as per the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, internationally recognised as the list that categorises the status of globally threatened animal species.

It is high time now to take some action regarding the decreasing number of these and such many other creatures which have been a part of the bio-diversity of India.