Coloradans can contribute to the fund on state tax form 104. Though popular folklore has given the bat a fearful reputation, these flying mammals can really be described as supersensory rather than supernatural. Bat fossils date back 60 million years and the nodes on their gargoyle-like faces continue to help them navigate and survive. They use an amazing technique called echolocation. Using high-pitched squeaks beyond the frequency of human hearing, bats navigate and locate prey in the dark by interpreting echoes produced when their calls bounce off objects.
Bats also provide invaluable ecological and medicinal services.
The little brown bat, for example, can eat up to 600 insects in an hour. And a colony of 150 big brown bats, common in Colorado's urban areas, can consume 18 million or more insects each summer. In the tropics and southwest deserts bats are very important as pollinators, and there are unique organisms in bat droppings that scientists are developing for use in products ranging from antibiotics to detergents. Though none of Colorado's 18 bat species are listed as endangered species, many are in decline. More than 40 percent of the bats in North America are considered endangered.