Bat wings are actually long webbed fingers on the bat's forelimbs. Bats, who live 20 or 30 years, and breed only once a year, use those articulate, prehensile wings to cuddle their young. Our mythology is hard on bats. And I don't just mean Dracula stories. That's simply false.
Bats can catch rabies, but when they do, they soon die.
Still, until recently, public health officials egged on the extermination of bats. Communities, like peasants in Frankenstein movies, have carried torches into caves and burned out the bats. Many species have been exterminated and the rest are dwindling. The irony lies in our huge debt to these harmless creatures. They are voracious eaters of insects.