As we slide into October, it's time to get to know the creatures of Halloween. The more we know about them, the less frightening they are.
Bats are scary because they fly in the dark and you won't see them coming until they startle you with a sense of movement out of the corner of your eye. There's something alien about mammals that fly and rest by hanging upside down. But they have their place in the ecosystem, as some bats eat thousands of mosquitos every night, while others pollinate crops. At Bat World Sanctuary in Texas, injured or orphaned bats can be sheltered and then released back into the wild, and bats rescued from labs and zoos can find a permanent home. They know how to make bats less alien-looking just by turning the camera upside down! Then they are just animals dealing with weird gravity. You can get to know more of the residents of Bat World at Instagram, and in a gallery of livestreams.
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