Why the ‘bat police’ are the animals’ own worst enemy

‘The only thing to be said for Halloween’, wrote Alexander Chancellor in a recent Long Life column, ‘is that it perpetuates the demonisation of the bat’. My initial thought was: ‘Surely Alexander is being slightly harsh on the poor old bat?’. I’ve always felt that bats have been dealt a pretty bad hand. After all, they’re essentially mice with wings, yet neither mice nor birds are quite as maligned as bats are. Rats, maybe, but that’s a different story.

But then I thought about it some more, and I can see where he’s coming from. I’d argue, however, that it’s not so much the bats themselves that people detest. It’s more the rules that are supposed to ‘protect’ them that put people off. I know the legislation is supposed to be beneficial to bats – as Alexander says, bat numbers ‘have declined dramatically in Britain during the past century’ due to loss of habitat (and, some say, wind turbines).