Bats and batty ideas

The article on bats by Natalino Fenech (August 22) reminds me of the occasions on which I have come into contact with these small, and I would like to say, delightful creatures.

The first time I was cycling speedily down a hill, in complete wartime darkness, when a bat happened to be flying across the road from one high hedge to another. The bat hit my army cap, sending it flying into the roadway, where I had to scrabble about on my hands and knees to find it before daring to return to camp without this important piece of equipment. Only with luck did I retrieve my cap in time to avoid a "charge".

The second time, I was fast asleep in bed, alone in a lonely thatched cottage, when I woke up sensing that something was wrong. Then I noticed a bat was fluttering at a small, high window obviously trying to get out. With its wings spread out wide it looked quite large. I had never seen bats inside the house before. Just as I was about to try and do something for the poor creature, it swooped down and flew right at me. I drew the sheet over my head, but it kept sweeping round over me several times before finally disappearing. I was a little shaken by the experience, but was terribly shocked the next morning when I found the tiny, tiny creature dead on the front lawn. I can only think that it had been begging for help.

The next, and most wonderful time, was when, in our garden in Essex, we had so many apples that we did not know what to do with them. The zoo, we remembered! There was a zoo nearby in Colchester, so perhaps they would like to have the apples. The manager welcomed our gift heartily. The fruit bats would be more than happy with the apples he told us, so, "Go and feed them," he said.

Very warily we approached the cage with strings of black animals hanging like washing from tree branches which reached towards the wire netting fence. As we held apples at the netting the sleepy animals, obviously smelling the fruit, slowly woke up and stirred. They then, one by one, and still upside down, edged towards the apples, and very, very gently took what we were holding out to them. There was no snatching or grabbing at the food, nor was there any fear of the humans handing it to them. We were all astonished at how gentle they were, and from then on they captured our hearts. We went to see them many times after that, and always experienced the same slow, gentle, dignified manner.

At a later date I saw hundreds of bats flying out of the large cavern at the back of Carlsbad Caverns in America, and was surprised to see so many happily flying about in daylight, and they were no bother to the many visitors who go to see those caves.