Merlin D. Tuttle
Autor von America's Neighborhood Bats: Understanding and Learning to Live in Harmony With Them
Über den Autor
Merlin D. Tuttle is President and Founder of Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas
Werke von Merlin D. Tuttle
America's Neighborhood Bats: Understanding and Learning to Live in Harmony With Them (1988) 287 Exemplare, 5 Rezensionen
The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals (2015) 195 Exemplare, 8 Rezensionen
Discover Bats with Merlin Tuttle and Bat Conservation International: The Multimedia Education Kit about Bats (1998) 6 Exemplare
Yukon Bats 2 Exemplare
Population Ecology of the Gray Bat (Myotis Grisescens): Factors Influencing Early Growth and Development (Classic… (2016) 1 Exemplar
Very elementary bats 1 Exemplar
Field Guide to Eastern Cave Bats 1 Exemplar
Gentle Fliers of the African Night 1 Exemplar
Bats: The Cactus Connection 1 Exemplar
Zugehörige Werke
Keepers of the Night: Native American Stories and Nocturnal Activities for Children (Keepers of the Earth) (1994) — Vorwort — 178 Exemplare, 1 Rezension
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Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Tuttle, Merlin Devere
- Geburtstag
- 1941-08-26
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- USA
- Wohnorte
- Texas, USA
- Ausbildung
- Andrews University
University of Kansas - Berufe
- photographer
ecologist
conservationist - Organisationen
- Merlin Tuttle's Bat Conservation
Bat Conservation International - Preise und Auszeichnungen
- Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. Award (1986)
The Society for Conservation Biology’s Distinguished Achievement Award (1991)
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chuck Yeager Award (1997)
Chevron/Times Mirror Magazine’s Conservation Award (1997)
National Wildlife Federation’s prestigious National Conservation Achievement Award (2001)
Margaret Douglas Medal (2003) (Zeige alle 7)
U.S. Congressional Award on behalf of the achievements of Bat Conservation International (2007)
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- Beliebtheit
- #40,249
- Bewertung
- 4.1
- Rezensionen
- 14
- ISBNs
- 22
This is an autobiography on the author’s life search and study of bats worldwide. I actually would give it 3.5 stars, better than average yet not a great read. Some parts were really exciting and adventurous and some parts were really bogged down with his descriptions of what exactly he had to do to get his photos of the bats. But, all in all, I learned a lot about bats…and his photos really are phenomenal.
I had no idea who Merlin Tuttle was. He’s pretty much one of the most notorious Chiropterologist in the U.S., and possibly the world. In 1986, he resigned as curator of mammals at the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin, moved to Austin, Texas, where he founded Bat Conservation International (BCI) to help Austinites understand and appreciate the 1.5 million Brazilian free-tailed bats (a.k.a. Mexican free-tailed bats) that were starting to move into all the small 16 inch crevasses beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge, just a few blocks down from the State Capitol. They were scared of bats, in general, because of rumors of rabies and attacks on people, and they wanted them exterminated!
But these bats, they would soon learn from Tuttle, were actually very gentle and too beneficial. Just one free-tailed bat can consume 20 to 40 moths a night. That may not seem like a lot, but when you factor in the fact that those 20 to 40 moths can each lay 500 to 1,000 eggs on Texas crops, times 20,000 moths, it changes your whole perspective. These insect-eating bats feed heavily on tons of a variety insects each night, such as corn earworms, tobacco budworms, and, the most costly to eradicate, fall army worm moths, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, etc…Thank God for his efforts! Today, it’s a tourist hot-spot, where hundreds of people will gather to watch their flight out at sunset, flying just above their heads. And never has one person ever been attacked or bitten.
These bats fly south for the winter and are only here from mid-march through September. They fly up to 10,000 feet above ground and can potentially form huge colonies, with 10-20 million or more bats. Up to 500 pups can fill up a single square foot.
Tuttle has invested his life to teaching others the importance of bats on our crops and economics all around the world, and has saved quite a few from becoming extinct. Some plants are strictly pollinated by bats, as their flowers only open at night, such as the agave cactus. We wouldn’t even have Tequila if it weren’t were bats. Fruit-bats are needed for seed dispersing certain plants and trees. And, of course, they are needed for insect and pest control. Bat guano can be used as fertilizer, but I’ve never seen it sold around here in southeast Texas. There are loads of bat caves all around Texas, especially up in the Hill Country (see link below).
I have not seen a bat around here in years…probably because our particular county, Orange County, prefers to shell out a few hundred thousand dollars each year to spray our skies, our ditches, our dogs, our farms, our people, and our gardens with poisons to take care of mosquito and bug problems. And it is usually done in the evenings, just when its finally cool enough for people to go out and tend their gardens. But, hey, it’s totally harmless…they say. But, I think I will still try and put out a few bat houses anyway, just to see if they are really around or not.
Tuttle’s adventures chasing down the more elusive bats are absolutely amazing and harrowing. He definitely has a great passion for bats. He has photographed all 46 bat species found in the U.S., and many in other countries. Some are found inside this book (See photos at the end of chapter 8 and at the end of chapter 12). If reading on a Kindle eBook, you can expand them to get a close up view. He has admitted to taking over 10,000 photos during bat expeditions just to capture that one GREAT shot for National Geographic…because that’s what it takes to get into National Geographic.
Chapter 4 on vampire bats was very interesting! The vampire bats are only down in Latin America for now, and about 130 miles south of the U.S. border. It is the only bat that has grown and become over abundant due to cattle raising and chicken farming where forests have disappeared. Not all, but some can carrie rabies that transfer to cattle, killing many cattle when there’s an outbreak. Still, according to Merlin, they are very gentle and harmless. The people had previously been burning ALL bats in any caves they found, trying to rid the vampire bat, but these turned out to be only fruit and insect-eating bats. The vampire bats hung out in very small numbers and deep inside the caves, separated, where no other bats were. So, they were never being killed. Merlin’s team, with Dr. Hugo Sancho, a local Veterinarian, helped educate the ranchers and farmers on the differences of the bats and how to best kill the vampire bat without harming any others. Interestingly, they use a poison mixture containing rat poison - WARFARIN, an anticoagulant!!… spread a little on top of the feeding bat, which feeds for 20 minutes on an animal. It then returns to the cave and the other bats lick it clean, killing that whole group of vampire bats.
LINKS TO ONLINE SOURCES
Here is a short, current and informative video regarding bats and disease presented by Merlin Tuttle, himself:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HjzzYo0OW-k&feature=youtu.be
Wiki link to more info and listen to the sound of the the Mexican or Brazilian free-tailed bat, the bats found here in southeast Texas.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_free-tailed_bat
It’s hard to believe this is the same fearless guy chasing bats in the book. Watch on YouTube, “The Worldwide Importance of Bats”, presented by Bats Conservation International (12:26):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4umck9gaxU
Link to places of interest for watching bat flights in the Texas Hill Country:
https://hillcountryportal.com/hillcountrybats.html… (mehr)