Friday, February 2, 2007

Bats: Truly Divine Beings

Bats are among the most noble and divine creatures on this planet. In Africa, they are the source of life for the Tree of Life itself. Bats affect you personally, though you may not know it. Consider fruit and nectar-feeding bats.

Do you like chocolate? Do you eat bananas, figs, or mangos? Or avocadoes (or guacamole sauce)? Have you ever had a date square? Do you ever munch on cashews or walnuts? Drink Tequila? Or chew gum? All of these foods wouldn't exist without bats, because they pollinate or otherwise help the plants that produce these fruits, nuts, and other food products! Pollen fertilizes eggs inside the flower, so the flower can produce fruit with seeds that can grow into new plants.

When a bat pokes its head into flower blossoms to drink nectar, pollen sticks all over the bat's face and body. Some of the pollen on stuck on bat's little face, head, chin, and chest will rub off on the next flower that it feeds on (nature's miraculous 3-some). This helps the plants, making it possible to grow fruit. The nectar provides bats with energy. Later, the bat licks the pollen of his fur to clean itself, and gets protein from the pollen!

We all hate to be on the receiving end of bigotry, whether its due to our appearance, choice of professions, or religion. Much as we hate experiencing bigotry, few of us defend noble beings -- bats -- though they greatly enhance our lives in magnificient ways that we probably can never be fully aware of, yet they are victims of discrimation, abuse, and even genocide at the hands of human beings. Look at the ugly and unfair depictions of bats in popular culture. The ancient Maya worshipped bats (and hummingbirds too); so should we.

Bats are closely related to primates; some scientists even classify them as such. Bats even talk to each other! We are primates. but bats can fly! Flying monkeys? They have hands just like us, with the same bones, though theirs are proportionately bigger and serve as wings.

This holiday season, I ask you to consider helping bats, since, after all, they help you in very many ways. Find out more at:
http://www.batcon.org/avscripts/script11.html
http://www.batworld.org/
http://www.batrescue.org/
http://www.batworld.org/adopt_a_bat/adopt_a_bat.html
http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp

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