Jalisco Ranchers’ War on Vampire Bats Takes Environmental Toll John Pint - Mexico News Daily
go to original December 4, 2021

Mistaking them for vampire bats, ranchers protecting their cattle frequently kill beneficial bats like this harmless agave pollinator (Filiberto Gonzale)

In a previous story, Bats Up Close and Personal, I made the case that most bats are every bit as clever, loving and loyal as dogs but that we humans don’t give them credit for these characteristics because most of us know them only as fleeting silhouettes in the night sky. But in Mexico, this is especially a problem.

Here, this prejudice against bats is far stronger because among the more than 1,400 species of bats in the world - which eat everything from insects to fruits and lizards to fish - there are three species that feed off the blood of other animals. One of them, Desmodus rotundus, or the vampire bat, has developed into a serious issue among cattle ranchers in Mexico, one that can be traced back to practices initiated by the Spaniards in the colonial era.

Before the conquest, vampiros were few and far between, typically nipping Mexican wild turkeys in the foot and lapping up (not sucking) some of their blood. Then the Spaniards introduced corrales, which resulted in great numbers of cows and horses being practically immobilized outdoors.

For Desmodus rotundus, every corral was a free restaurant, and the number of vampire bats in Mexico has been growing steadily for centuries, creating a kind of Koyaanisqatsi, or Life-Out-of-Balance, situation in rural Mexico.

Besides leaving unsuspecting cows and horses with open wounds, vampire bats often leave them with paralytic rabies. When a rancher sees one of his animals after another die a slow, horrible death like this, he can’t be blamed for wanting to seek out the culprit’s home and blow it to bits.

If a rancher or farmer has never had a close-up look at those mysterious flyers of the night, he may easily assume that all bats are vampiros. And that’s a problem.

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily

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