From ABC News (28/4/24)…
Native bats should be celebrated like other Australian wildlife, ecologist says
Australia is famous for wildlife from furry marsupials to scaly lizards and deadly spiders, but a scientist says our native bats are not getting the love or admiration they deserve.
Negative stereotypes and links to the outbreak of COVID-19 have given bats a poor reputation, with few people showing interest in Australia’s numerous and diverse bat species.
Bat ecologist Kelly Sheldrick has spent years studying bats and working on their reputation issues, which she says are often connected to mythical creatures and supernatural themes like vampires.
“People associate bats with drinking blood,” she says.
“And they’re not easy to see at night, they’re quite elusive … and people fear what they don’t know.”
In a paper published by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales in 2011, Daniel Lunney and Chris Moon wrote that bats were “almost invisible to the public” and stories like Count Dracula had left a perception of bats as “dark, evil, bloodsucking monsters”.
