Laurence Pringle

The Story Behind the Book

For the first 20 years of life I had an all-too-common notion about bats--that they were scary, somewhat dangerous animals. That began to change when I learned some truths about bats in a mammalogy course at Cornell University. This happens so often in life--fear disappears as knowledge and understanding grow.

The change accelerated when I wrote Vampire Bats (Morrow, 1982). Vampire bats sometimes take blood meals from people--YUCK! However, I learned about many facets of the lives of vampire bats from researchers who knew them well. I learned about their intelligence, their close social bonds, their caring for injured or orphaned colony members--all qualities that we admire in other, more appealing mammal species. I grew to admire and appreciate them, and ended that book with these words: "The vampire bat, after all, is not a mythical monster. It is a fascinating real creature that happens to need blood in order to fly, to raise its young, to live."

Next I wrote about a remarkable man, Merlin Tuttle, in Batman (Atheneum, 1991)--his life, research, and efforts to change public attitudes about bats. Tuttle founded Bat Conservation International, an organization that aims to aid in the conservation of one of the least popular groups of animals on Earth. It has made remarkable progress.

Perhaps, in a small way, my Batman book has helped. However, it was not needed at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York--a cultural oasis and one of the most bat-friendly communities on Earth. At Chautauqua I met bat researchers, as well as numerous bats, and decided to write Bats! Strange and Wonderful. My aim was to write an introductory book--one that could be read to a young child--that also had enough fascinating details and illustrations to intrigue older readers who were curious about bats.

For many summers my family and I have enjoyed seeing a few bats overhead hunting insects in the twilight. One fall I asked for a birthday gift of a bat house. I assembled it, painted it black, and put it on the side of the house that catches the most sun. This makes a warm, cozy resting place for bats. One August day I climbed a ladder to the site and shone a flashlight up into the house. A little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus, huddled at the top of the warm shelter. I quickly left, not out of fear, but out of respect. Bats have been good, insect-catching neighors to me, and I aim to be a good neighbor to them.