Bats. Bats. So Many

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Peace Corps has allowed me to get involved in things that I would otherwise have no interest and or opportunity.  One of these fine activities happened last night.  I assisted with bat surveys.  To say the least I was scared, my stomach knotted up waiting for the first bat last night.  

I have been looking for anything and everything to keep my time occupied here.  I was chatting with Greg when he told me about bat surveys that NEPA (National Environmental & Planning Agency) were doing in Portland and how they were looking for volunteers.  PERFECT, oh wait, I have never done anything with bats, in fact I am not sure I even want to.  Luckily I signed up before I thought myself out of it.

As the days approached before doing this first survey I had a few conversations with friends back home who warned me of biting (oh yeah), and how most bats carry rabies (be careful!), and how I should wear rubber boots because there might be so much guano in the caves that you will get swallowed (WHAT?).  Oh my, I don’t know if I am up for this, but I had already signed up, so I was going to go at least once.  

I got picked up in Buff Bay by the crew from Kingston and we were off to find the first cave.  It happened that it was right on the side of the road (no hiking this time).  I was prepared for anything- pants, long sleeves, bandana on my head, hiking boots.  They were in jeans and tee shirts and flip flops (they did change into tennis shoes).  This cave was small and right on the main road, everyone stopped to see what we were doing, putting together PVC pipes and draping tarps and cloth to make a “bat trap”.  The process of these surveys are to CATCH the bats and determine species, weight, sex, are they lactating or pregnant, wing span and anything else unusual.  As we were setting up I started asking questions like “do you get bit a lot?” –“Oh yeah when I first started I got bit A LOT” (oh comforting), and then she said “I hope those big ones aren’t in there that bite everything they see with those big teeth”.. I was starting to get second thoughts about this whole bat survey idea.  Then they were talking about fish eating bats, “well look were right next to a river”.  I don’t know what a fish eating bat is, but my imagination was running wild.  One guy walked in the cave as said “there is only about 20 bats- should get done early tonight”.

We then waited… and waited for the sun to go down.. A local guy came by on his bike and kept us entertained for a while chatting jokes in patwa (I wasn’t laughing half as much as everyone else-the humor here is a little different).  We also had a guy pass by in a taxi van as asked if we wanted to buy any juice that was good for your nature (very popular here), I passed.  

The first bat came, then the second.  We rushed across the street to get started.  Monique caught one and had it halfway inside a cloth sack and walked at me with the bats little head poking out all teeth!  Ahhhh, I turned away.. She laughed-“youre suppost to be learning”.  I was lucky enough to not have to be on the catching crew.  I was ordered to go up with the boss lady Andrea and assist in the measurements.  My job was to weigh them.  I tied them on this string as they were handed to me in the sacks.  They all wanted out, their creepy little hands poking out of the bags with their little fingernails.  It was really creepy at first, but I got use to it.  The bats came in waves-LOTS of them, hundreds of bats.  At times we had to stop and cut some of the fishing line because they were getting tangled. 

It was a good experience and I look forward to doing it again.