{"id":4066,"date":"2017-10-23T23:21:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T23:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=4066"},"modified":"2018-02-25T14:30:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T14:30:39","slug":"5-myths-about-bats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/5-myths-about-bats\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Myths that are Hurting Canada\u2019s Bats"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Have you ever felt misunderstood? It\u2019s such an awful feeling, isn\u2019t it? Well you\u2019re not the only one. Bats have had a bad rap for years. And all sorts of rumours have gone around about these winged mammals that simply\u2026aren\u2019t true. Let\u2019s debunk some of the myths surrounding bats, shall we?<\/h2>\n<div class=\"embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aiLHmGf6dTE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Myth #1: Bats are rodents<\/h3>\n<p>Nope! Bats aren\u2019t even related to rodents. In fact, they\u2019re more closely related to primates and lemurs than they are to mice or rats. Bats are part of their own order of mammals called Chiroptera which means hand-wing.<\/p>\n<h3>Myth #2: Bats are blind<\/h3>\n<p>Bats can see very well, thank you very much. I think people most often get confused on this point because they know most bats are reliant on echolocation to make their way. Since most bats can\u2019t see in the dark, when they are most active, they rely on their built in sonar system to navigate at incredibly high speeds in absolute darkness!<\/p>\n<h3>Myth #3: Bats will fly into your hair<\/h3>\n<p>Where did this one come from, anyway? A bat\u2019s echolocation is so finely-tuned that they can navigate around a strand of hair hanging from the ceiling! Bats don\u2019t have much interest in humans. So if a bat is swooping around your head, he\u2019s probably after the mosquito about to take a bite out of you. Hang in there.<\/p>\n<h3>Myth #4: Bats suck blood<\/h3>\n<p>The only bats that do drink blood are vampire bats found in Mexico as well as Central and South America. They lick blood off of cows, chickens and other animals. Not humans! So please stop worrying about bats. The bats that live here in Canada eat insects (take that mosquitos!), and play a very important role in pest control. In fact, they save the Canadian agricultural industry millions of dollars!<\/p>\n<h3>Myth #5: Bats have rabies<\/h3>\n<p>Okay I should probably clear something up here. Bats can <em>carry<\/em> rabies. But so can you and your cat or dog, or that squirrel negotiating with your bird feeder. But seeing that a very small percentage of bats actually contract rabies, the threat against humans is incredibly small. Of course, we\u2019re not encouraging you to head out to a cave and try to handle these animals \u2013 they\u2019re just like any other wild animal and will likely bite in self-defense.<\/p>\n<h3>Support Bat Conservation in Canada<\/h3>\n<p>Millions of bats have died in Canada over the past 10 years. They may not be able to recover without our help! Here are a few ways you can support bat conservation in Canada:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/shopcwf.ca\/collections\/frontpage\/products\/bat-box\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Put up a bat house<\/a>. Providing a cozy retreat for expecting mothers is a great way to promote bat conservation and aid population recovery at the same time.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/shopcwf.ca\/collections\/frontpage\/products\/cwf-bat-bundle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy a bat bundle<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/shopcwf.ca\/products\/little-brown-bat-adoption-kit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Little Brown Bat adoption kit<\/a>. Proceeds support species at risk right here in Canada.<\/li>\n<li>Turn your next Halloween party into a bat fundraiser. Download a <a href=\"http:\/\/cwf-fcf.org\/en\/explore-our-work\/endangered-species\/help-the-bats\/batty-halloween-bash.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Help the Bats kit<\/a> from our website.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now that you know more about bats in Canada, see if you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qzzr.com\/c\/quiz\/450491\/how-much-do-you-actually-know-about-bats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">get 100% on this bat quiz<\/a>!<br \/>\n<div class='quizz-container' data-quiz='450491' data-width='100%' data-height='auto' data-auto-redirect='true'><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-excerpt\">Have you ever felt misunderstood? It\u2019s such an awful feeling, isn\u2019t it? Well you\u2019re not the only one. Bats have had a bad rap for years. And all sorts of&hellip;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":4070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,633],"tags":[87,654,168,194,900],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-endangered-species","category-canadian-wildlife","tag-bats","tag-help-the-bats","tag-little-brown-bat","tag-species-at-risk","tag-wildlife-facts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4599,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions\/4599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}