Rainy season is in full swing and that means the insect population is booming. It also means that thousands of large bats have returned to our hospital campus to feed.
Why so many bats in one place? Deforestation is a huge issue in northern Ghana and the Baptist Medical Centre has not allowed its trees to be cut unless absolutely necessary. Also, in the past, the hospital’s American missionaries enjoyed planting trees on the campus. The result is a little forest “oasis” in our region. So now, every rainy season thousands of bats come to our large trees to rest during the day before they head out in the evening to devour tons (literally) of insects.
Another contributing factor is that over the last five years the consumption of bat meat has plummeted due to ebola fears. I can remember seeing groups of boys shooting the bats with slingshots when we first came to BMC in 2007. Since then I’ve only seen some kids eating bat once in the last couple years and they were out in the bush and oblivious of what ebola was.
So as for our growing bat population? I’m a fan. The more mosquitoes they eat, the less I get bit!
