I have a wildlife zoo

One of the oldest and most intense emotions of mankind is fear, and the oldest and most intense fear is the fear of the unknown.

This is true for wild animals as well!

Often, the fear or even hatred people have for animals actually stems from the unknown. As understanding deepens, unnecessary fears gradually dissipate.

Take the reptiles and amphibians exhibit at the zoo, for example. Many people are initially afraid of snakes, but through educational displays and explanations from animal keepers, they come to understand that snakes won't attack if not provoked. They even learn that snakes can form friendships and value family bonds.

There are interactive animals like the hog-nosed snake that people can touch.

Through this process, they slowly become less afraid and understand that snakes are an important part of the ecosystem and should not be harmed without cause.

Fang Ye chuckled and said, "That's why, though bats may look ugly, we shouldn't shun or harm them because of that."

Wang Yan said, "Zoo Director Fang makes a great point.

In fact, bats are a very important keystone species. Even though they usually appear at night and may seem inconspicuous, they play a huge role in the ecosystem."

The host leaned forward with a look of genuine interest, "Oh?"

Wang Yan said, "Take mosquitoes, for example. Everyone hates them, right?"

Fang Ye echoed, "I'm especially afraid of mosquito bites! When I get bitten, it swells up so much, and I seem to attract mosquitoes. If I'm in a dorm room with others, the mosquitoes will bite me and not anyone else."

The zoo environment naturally offers plenty of opportunities to be bitten by mosquitoes.

Fortunately, with the system's lottery, he once won some mosquito-repellent incense and other props that were even more effective than mosquito nets. With these in his room, he could leave the windows open without mosquitoes flying in, allowing him to sleep peacefully.

Wang Yan said, "Many bats feed on insects, making them a very important controller of insects, including mosquitoes, flies, moths, and many agricultural pests. Research has shown that a bat can consume one-third of its body weight in insects each night.

What does this mean? A 20-gram bat can eat about 200 to 1,000 small insects in one night, and it can eat 15 to 20 mosquito-sized insects in one minute.

In a neighborhood, let's say conservatively that there are a dozen to twenty bats, they could eat tens of thousands of insects in one night. And that's just the insects they eat directly, not including the offspring that these insects would have produced.

These small insects breed rapidly. A mosquito can lay two to three hundred eggs after one blood meal, and it only takes ten to fifteen days to hatch from eggs to adults.

If bats didn't exist, we would have to control these insects with pesticides or other methods."

The host sincerely exclaimed in surprise, "Is it really that amazing?"

At this point, the show's popularity was soaring!

Many viewers were messaging friends or calling their families to watch TV together.

Tang Xiaoxin was doing her homework, but was called to watch TV with permission.

At first, when she heard what Fang Ye said, she wanted to laugh, as she too was particularly prone to mosquito bites.

Seeing what Wang Yan said, her eyes widened in amazement, "A single bat can eliminate thousands of mosquitoes in one night!"

Mother Tang seemed contemplative at this moment, "When I was a child, there were quite a few bats around our house, and indeed, I wasn't bitten by mosquitoes very often."

Tang Xiaoxin wailed, "Why don't we have bats here! It would be so good if there were more bats, then I wouldn't be afraid of mosquitoes at night anymore!"

Father Tang mused, "Bats really are rarely seen now! If it weren't for this pandemic, I wouldn't even have known there were bats in the neighborhood."

Having participated in farming activities, Tang Xiaoxin understood the impact of fertilizers and pesticides on rice paddy ecosystems and speculated, "I guess it's because of the pesticides! Frogs and dragonflies are also hard to come by these days. When pesticides kill bugs, they poison the bats, too."

She sighed with regret, "What a pity!"

Wang Yan said, "Without bats, the rampant mosquitoes and flies could increase the risk of infectious diseases for us by tenfold, even dozens of times.

"They also control agricultural pests. According to statistics, in the American Midwest, a group of 150 big brown bats can eat 150 thousand leafhoppers, 190 thousand Maybugs, 330 thousand stink bugs, and 600 thousand leaf beetles a year. If each female leaf beetle lays 110 eggs, they can prevent 33 million leaf beetle larvae from being born, saving a vast amount of crops like pumpkins and cucumbers."

Zoo Director Fang said, "In China, we have a lot of traditional culture related to bats. For example, the 'Fu' character we post during the New Year generally has some bats drawn above it, right? There are also various kinds of bat patterns on utensils and buildings. In the past, when wishing the elderly long life, people would give them gifts decorated with bats and deer, which together with the longevity star make 'Fu Lu Shou'.

"It's not just because the word for bat, 'fu', is a homophone for luck; they truly bring good fortune. Places with bats have a lower chance of contracting diseases from mosquito bites, and the harvest of crops also improves.

"Think about it, if bad things happened where bats lived, would ancient people have used them for auspicious patterns? Maybe bats would have been renamed 'evil bat' or 'ugly bat'."

"Wow!"

The audience in front of the TV exclaimed.

If the previous conversation had dissolved some fear, now their attitude towards bats had greatly improved.

Those who insisted on driving away, even killing bats, were beginning to feel a sense of regret!

This was like driving away good fortune!

"Right, bats have always been a symbol of good fortune. We've lived with bats for so many years and nothing bad has happened," someone mused.

"When I was a kid, bats even flew into our house to rest. They stayed the night and then flew away."

Wang Yan continued, "Besides eating insects, bats are also prey for other carnivorous animals, like monkeys, raccoons, birds of prey, and snakes. Birds and snakes are the main predators, and they are an indispensable part of the food web.

"Bats are also important pollinators, with some feeding on nectar and pollen.

"During the long process of evolution, many plants have specialized to a great extent; some even open their flowers at night specifically to attract bats for pollination, such as the calabash tree and cacti!"

"Flowers that rely on bats for pollination vary in size, some being large and having broad pistils; others might have petals that extend outward, as if providing a platform for bats, so that when bats approach the pistils, pollen falls on them.

"Then there are fruit-eating bats; they are numerous, fly far, and the seeds in the fruit can't be digested, so they are spread far and wide during the bats' flights.

"For bats that live in caves, their guano piles up on the cave floor, providing food for insects and fungi living there.

"So to say, if we were to massively exterminate bats, the ecosystem would take a big hit."