Bats in the belfry - and classroom

They are not as pet friendly as some domesticated farm animals but bats are enormously beneficial to man, especially in an agriculturally vital region such as Yuma, says an Arizona Western College researcher.

Cecilia Vigil, an AWC biology professor, would like to dispel the myth about bats despite the ghoulish reputation they are often accorded in fiction.

"We would like to educate the community that bats aren't vermin that spread disease, suck your blood and get tangled in your hair," Vigil said.

The science building in which she teaches has for more than a decade served as the roost for approximately 500 bats who sleep by day just inside the crevice of an overhang near the ceiling of the first floor. Almost as many bats live in other places along the campus but they only come out to feed just after sunset around 7:45 p.m.

These bats commonly known as Mexican free tails are getting ready to migrate south for the winter, but in the spring, pregnant females that weigh up to 14 grams will eat their weight in insects every night.

"They eat a lot of boll weevils that are devastating to cotton and corn," Vigil said. "Sometimes they're in a place we don't want them, like an attic, but if we can keep them where we need them they eat a lot of pests like mosquitoes."

One of Vigil's research goals is to study what it is about the campus that attracts the bats and then try to replicate it for an artificial roost or "bat house." Some farmers maintain a bat house to keep down their pest populations and because the bat guano serves as an excellent fertilizer.

On Oct. 7, Vigil will participate in another research goal conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Arizona Game and Fish Department in which she and some of her top students will help trap the bats and collect saliva and blood samples to see if they carry rabies.

"Rabies are not really an issue here," Vigil said. "The USDA is checking AWC as part of a random sample that's being done all over Arizona."

Once the bats are captured they will be measured, weighed, have their gender determined, checked for samples and then released.

Linden Piest, a Game and Fish nongame biologist who has worked with Vigil previously, said that just before sunset he will hang nets to trap the bats. Although they never attack people, the researchers must wear gloves because they do not like being handled.

Once they have some of the bats, they are swabbed for their saliva and a pipette, a lab instrument, is inserted to collect blood, he said.

"Bats will not attack people even if they're infected, they don't become aggressive when they have rabies," Piest said. "It's mostly carnivores - cats, dogs and foxes - that become aggressive."

Rabies is only carried by mammals. The virus usually makes its way to the brain from the infection site when an infected animal transmits it to another, frequently from a bite.

There are not many cases of human rabies in Yuma or the state but there is always the potential of an outbreak, he cautioned.

One of the students assisting in the research is Alex Ramsower, 20, a junior environmental science major. Ramsower periodically checks up on the bats during the day, taking a ruler and gently prodding them.

"The bats will sometimes bare their teeth, others just back away but I'm really gentle with the ruler," Ramsower said. "Some students don't like them because they don't know much about them. But the majority think it's interesting they roost here."

The bats almost never disturb people on campus but if they ever swoop by, it is only because someone has stirred the insects on the lawn, which they feed on, he said.

One of several strengths of the AWC curriculum is field biology, Vigil noted. Students get such wonderful internships, they are almost assured of a job once they graduate.

"One of the cool things about having the bats here is we don't have to leave the campus," Vigil said. "The campus lends itself to all sorts of research."

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William Roller can be reached at
wroller@yumasun.com or 539-6858.