Imagine A Halloween Without Bats
No chocolate, few tropical nuts and fruits, more insect pests…
Just the mere thought of no chocolate makes us frightened!
Bats are one of the most beneficial animals to humans. They play key roles in the environment, eating bothersome insects, pollinating flowers, and dispersing seeds. Unfortunately, across the world, and here in the Garden State, bats continue to face many threats including habitat loss and disease such as white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome, alone, can kill 90-100% of bats in affected caves.
But you can help! This year, why not trick or treat for bats?
Collect your trick or treat money and make a donation to CWF! Thank bats for all the wonderful benefits they provide to us. Halloween wouldn’t be the same without bats and delicious m&m’s, snickers, and almond joys.
Make a donation to Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ and help us to protect NJ’s bat population.
Or consider adopting an Indiana bat, NJ’s federally endangered bat, to help protect its future here in NJ.
To learn more about how bats benefit humans, read on!
Bats are primary pollinators of many tropical fruits like bananas, mangoes, and dates, guavas, and figs. The agave cactus relies on bats for pollination. No agave = no tequila (scary!)
Bats also help in seed dispersal. In fact, seeds dropped by bats can account for up to 95 percent of forest regrowth on cleared land. Bats spread the seeds of almonds, cashews, and chocolate. Did you read that? CHOCOLATE! Bats help us to have more cacao trees, which produces the yummy main ingredient of our favorite Halloween treats!
Closer to home in New Jersey, bats eat bugs, and a lot of them. All nine species of bats found inNew Jersey eat insects, consuming one-third of their weight in bugs each night. Bats play essential roles in keeping populations of night-flying insects in balance. Just one bat can catch hundreds of insects in an hour, and large colonies catch tons of insects nightly, including beetles and moths that cost American farmers and foresters billions of dollars annually, not to mention mosquitoes in our backyards.