Bats and Battes

I love bats. I am not sure that my interest in them really has much to do with my last name which is the Old English spelling of the word bat. Everyone thinks it is a French spelling, but no, alas. I became fascinated by bats when I was a kid living in Texas, where there have been huge bat colonies since forever, I guess. I used to love going out just at sunset to watch the skies suddenly get very dark with a huge swarm of bats setting out for their nightly feast of insects. (We didn't have a television at my house then so this was one of the things I used to do for entertainment.) The bat colonies in Austin, Texas have become quite famous and a great tourist attraction. Just recently I discovered a species of bat I had never heard about...the bumble bee bat of Thailand. These little guys are supposed to be the smallest living mammal. What a hoot. And guess where I gained this valuable piece of knowledge...from the inside of the lid of a Snapple Ice Tea! How cool is that? So here is a photo of one of the little guys. Now that is what I call CUTE.