B Is For Bat

This may or may not come as a shock to you but bats are actually one of my most favourite creatures. They are only trumped by the great and mighty Octopus and wise old Owl. Personally, I think a number three ranking isn't anything to scoff at. And to be honest, I don't know if bats are even the scoffing type.

Whether other people like it or not, October is synonymous with Halloween. When you think October, you think Halloween. It's the same with December and Christmas. They go hand-in-hand. You can't help it. And you can't undo it. This is just the way things are.

The bat is one of the mascots of Halloween. To clarify, there are a couple. They include a pumpkin (and/or Jack-O-Lantern), a cat (preferably black), ghosts (silly little white ones) and, of course, the bat. Some other representatives  which people might misconstrue as mascots are: Frankenstein, the wicked witch, Dracula, and the Werewolf. These are not mascots at all. These are the captains of the football teams. The most valuable players.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "But Tyson, the bat is the counterpart to Dracula!"

And you're right. The bat is a vampire in their sneakiest form, or so the horror urban legends and movies would have us believe. But this is precisely why I have selected the 'bat' to highlight the letter 'B' today. Because they are unique. Also because I couldn't think of another 'B' topic other than bodacious babes, which really have anything to do with October at all. Except for all the scantily clad women that come out on the 31st dressed as sexy nurses and kittens to ward off the evil spirits. That's what they are doing, right?

There are many reasons why the bat is worthy of a blog post all its own. First, and most important, bats pollinate. This is why the decline in bat population is a bad thing. (You know, other than the species dying off and slowly becoming extinct.) A lot of people don't know that many agricultural plants from bananas to cashews to dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal. Crazy, right? Yeah, I know. Funny how all these creatures we take for granted actually are integral parts of our ecosystem. Imagine that.

Other than being hard working participants in nature, bats are just cool. They are nocturnal,meaning they come out and play at night and rely on echolocation to get around. For those of you who don't know what that means, bats use noises that bounce of walls and objects so they can navigate their way through trees and caves and barns. They can tell the distance by how quickly the sound travels back to them. There are a ton of other great things about bats, like how they have a thumb and four fingers and the skin of their wings are stretched over them, but I only have a limited amount of time here.

Because Halloween is synonymous with October and bats are a mascot of Halloween it is only natural that we pause for a moment to recognize the sheer awesomeness of this warm blooded mammal. It dumbfounds me when people are afraid of this animal. Then again, I like spiders. Speaking of which, would they be considered another mascot of Halloween?

Things to ponder as I continue the A-Z Blogging Challenge. See you tomorrow!