The Bats Did It At Last!

By Yuta of Bank Street School For Children, NYC.

Last night, Yuta called all the bats in the world to New York City and gave each bat 1,000,000 insects. He says he gave the special reward to the bats because they are so important. One bat can eat up to 900 insects an hour. The insects they eat include insects that are bad for farming and insects that humans do not like, such as mosquitoes and moths. Bats are also responsible for the dispersal of 95% of the seeds in the world's rainforests. Yuta says, "by doing what (he) did yesterday, people all around the world that are reading the newspaper will learn that there would be many more insects than there are now if bats were gone."

I thought bats were dirty rodents until I went to interview Yuta. Bats are getting less an less numerous every year because people kill them. Most people don't just kill them with a broom. They bomb whole caves.

Bats live together, so when you bomb one cave, 1,000,000 or more bats die all at once. To tell the truth, I have killed four bats in my life because I thought they were not important. To help bats from disappearing, we should not kill bats and tell other people how important they are.

Return To: School For Children Environmental Science

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