Fruit Bat - Keystone flying creature

We wait eagerly for the evening when scorching summer is at its peak. Clear nights with cool breeze just after the sun drops beyond the horizon tempt us to roam outside, more preferably on the terrace. Reminiscing the older days, when I have lived with my folks (family and neighbors), who prefer to sleep outside under the twinkling sky when rooms were humid. All we know at that time there was no sign of air conditioners only fans were well known, and condition worse if light gone during the night. So sleeping outside was a paradise state. The precedent reason is more related to health. My father advised that sleep under the sky with a natural breeze is utterly healthy. And yes that’s true! Childhood sleep was really good.

Indian Flying Fox - Pteropus giganteus (Source -google) 

By that time, we siblings used to count moving satellites and shooting stars. Universe chapter was one of my favorite chapters from Physics. When 90’s students were learning Universe, I am sure we all had the same dream like ‘Kalpana Chawla. Oh! what innocent fantasies we had, when we were connected with nature. Those were really great and fairy-tale dreams.

Another thing that captured my eyes was a medium-sized creature with large wings, flying just above the height of tree crown. When I asked my grandma about this, she said we call it ‘Mann’ehh’ (the unexplored folk name for fruit-bat). She explained about these night birds who return back to camp during dusk after collecting food or completing their daily duty. I believed, so name ‘Mann’ehh’ got fixed into my head with its appearance.

Evening Flight of Pteropus giganteus (Source -google) 

 Most of them were seeing as moving predominantly in one direction. Under moon-night, they looked like unique birds and little scary with grey color. That time I have never seen them flying in daylight, only regular birds. So I thought they left their colony in search of food toward the east before I woke up. Or maybe in the morning, I was not as focused as the night on the sky or busy getting ready for my school.

These are some of the memories we are leaving behind with unauthentic identification.

But later I got to know about this flying creature and surprised me as it is no more a ‘bird’ but a unique flying mammal having no tail at its posterior. It is ‘big bat’ or Indian fruit bat or Pteropus giganteus or P. medius of order Chiroptera. It also got its unique name as ‘flying fox’ after resembling its face shape as foxy. Cladistically, bats share most of the unique features like mammals having a somewhere common ancestor in deep past. They have forelimbs like us which have well-adapted wings. They are warm-blooded animals, who can regulate their body temperature. They give birth to a young one and later feed, nurse their young one like mammals.

Please don’t believe in the myth that bats are responsible for COVID-19

During the early stages of corona outbreak fruit bats were targeted with hate comments like as disease vector of Covid-19, even by various specialists without taking the research first. Just on the basis of historical events of the spread of the virus of corona family by bats. Rumors were spreading explosively when myths were added to un-reviewed facts. That is even worse.

Yes, it is true that coronavirus and bats are evolving together since a million years ago. But we need to be authentic for specific sources of viruses of the same family. A research was conducted by the French Research Institute where they decipher the genetic material sequence of existing viruses in bat. It was found to be a different virus (SARS and SARS-Cov-2) of the corona family irrespective of the current COVID virus.

We should accept the scientific facts and ignore the myth which already created hate toward bats which are incredible pollinator and insect pest eater. They are commendable in keeping the balance in nature. They help in seed dispersal and the natural regeneration of number of tropical trees. That’s why; they are referred to as ‘Keystone species’ for the Indian Ecosystem. These flying creatures prefer to roost gregariously on large trees. They live in a colony called a camp with different member capacity or colony size can go up to 1000 population. These frugivorous mammals select the fruit-bearing trees having grooves; strong lateral branches like trees belong to the Ficus family, Mangifera indica (Mango), Madhuca indica (Mahua), Eugenia jambolana (Jamun), Musa spp. (Banana), Dalbergia sissoo (Tali), Terminalia arjuna (Arjun), Eucalyptus spp. (Safeda), and also roost in busy Bamboos.

Moreover if we talk about zoonotic disease, these animals and birds are not responsible for spreading infection but we human are interfering in their wild domain, exploiting nature and natural balance.