An Old Bat Gets Lucky in Tenerife

My early morning walks with the dogs are most often pretty quiet. With the kids to get ready for school and him-indoors ready to leave for work, I need to be up, out and back with two relieved rovers by just after seven. While a lie-in would be lovely now that the kids are off school for a week, it is very hard to sleep with two large dogs dancing cross-legged through the bedroom.

From November to January the mornings have been inky black but now, they’re getting lighter and it’s possible to see my hand in front of my face without the help of my trusty torch. Skye, good girl that she is, potters about and does her business without any fuss. Tito is more skittish and behaves like a shy schoolgirl getting ready to pee behind a bush. Every noise or car door slamming miles away has his head up, ears cocked and all thought of the toilet flushed out of his brain.

This morning as I stood about waiting for Tito to perform, up his head went again and he stared off to the side, into the murk. I looked at him, then off to the side to see if I could see what he was looking at. Not a bean in sight. I huffed a breath impatiently and turned to the front and … WHOOSH … I just missed getting scalped by a huge bat!

I gave an involuntary gasp and staggered back a few steps clutching at my chest to try and massage my heart back into action. Mr. Alert by my side was by this time happily in the middle of business and cast me a glance which was obviously meant to tell me to stop messing about and give him a moment’s peace.

To the Chinese, one bat is lucky but five bats even more so. I suppose I am lucky that I wasn’t mobbed by five bats. But seriously, bats are cool. Not one of life’s winners in the looks department, granted, but imagine how many more tons of mosquitos there would be to keep you awake if bats were not around to eat them.

The Canary Islands has its own species of bat. Called Plecotus Teneriffae (or more commonly the Canary Long Eared Bat) these little guys are on the endangered list and live on only three or four of the Canary Islands, surviving in rapidly shrinking forest habitats. If this was my morning mugger than I was very lucky indeed to nearly be decapitated by such a rare specimen.

I suspect, though, that my batty friend might have been Rousettus aegyptiacus or the Egyptian Fruit Bat to his friends. Alleged escapees from Loro Parque, these fugitives are wreaking havoc on Tenerife’s endemic flora and fauna.

The wiki page for Rousettus aegyptiacus includes the information that their fur is very soft and their wings feel not unlike pantyhose (what was that writer on?). The males also have a large scrotal sack apparently which makes me feel not only lucky but highly blessed not to have been hit in the head by this creature.

Added April 14th 2009: I still don’t know if the photograph shows my morning mugger but I did eventually manage to get a little video of the bats early morning antics which at least shows that they are of a significant size. Look at this for batty acrobatics.