You may have heard all kinds of stories about bats, but you should know that most of them are simply not true. They are not mice or birds and they do not lay eggs. And as much as vampire fans would like them to be – no, they are not vampires either. Many taboos were unmasked during Bat Night at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia and everyone who visited it then now knows they are amiable little creatures and that, without them, the world would not be so sweet. Just imagine a world without chocolate!

If bats needed a fairy godmother, they have surely found her – museum expert Antonia Houbancheva:

“Would it be fair if every man on Earth was called John? It is the same with vampire bats. There are around 1,200 species of bats on the planet and only one of them feeds on blood. That is why it is so unfair to call them all “vampires”.  Bats are actually very useful – they are beautiful and smart, they have a long life span and in no way resemble mice. If I was to compare them to any other animal I would compare them to foxes or dogs with their incredibly intelligent way of life. They protect us, though we may not know it and we need them. So, we must really take care of bats, without them our species would not be what it is, the ecosystems would be thrown off balance.”

What is the secret life of bats? Antonia Houbancheva has traveled the world to see, with her own eyes, numerous bat species:

“Their secret life? One fact about them I am very fond of talking about is that in the jungles of Central America there lives a bat species that feeds on frogs, but is also able to detect them by their song. When the male is singing to attract the female – he croaks in a very distinct way - instead of the female, up comes the bat to devour him.”

But there is an interesting story from Africa as well.

“I recently returned from Africa – from the savanna where I studied bats living in banana leaves, as well as bats that feed on baobab nectar. If it weren’t for bats, we could forget about chocolate or cocoa. Strange as it may sound, we would not have cocoa, hence chocolate as many bat species pollinate the baobab.”

Let us add that agave tequilana, commonly called blue agave is also pollinated by bats. In Bulgaria, there are no more than 33 bat species and that makes it a country that is not very interesting to bat experts. But Antonia has found a challenge here:

“Bulgaria is the most exciting country in the world, and I am saying this after having traveled to so many places around the world. Our bats are so different from one another, it’s like comparing a robin to an eagle. We have bats with ears as long as their bodies – can you imagine our own ears being six feet long? We have bats that are tiny, the adults weighing four grams, they can fit onto the tip of young finger. All bats in Bulgaria eat insects and insects only.”

People who think bats only live in dark caves are wrong – they live all around us in the city, even though we may not notice them.

“They are everywhere if you just look carefully. I recently found a colony of brown bats on my own balcony. And right under the colony – a geranium that was faring really well. It turned out that the bats' guano had been fertilizing my plant. Not to worry that we live alongside bats. We should actually be glad, because they are a protected endangered species and it is an honour to be sharing a city with them.”

English version: Milena Daynova