There's something both fascinating and oddly repulsive about bats. Mostly we never see or hear them, except perhaps at dusk when they fly into the night to feed on insects and other things. They are champions at pest control and generally "good neighbors".
At Sandibe Lodge in Botswana, a lovely resort, a colony of bats had made their home under a portion of the thatched roof of the open-air main building. The roof was perhaps 35 feet (10 m) above the ground. It was in this building that guests had several lounges, a fireplace, and where breakfast, lunch and tea were served. Off to the side, away from the human traffic, several hundred bats hung suspended during the day, dozing and at times watching us. They weren't in our way and never bothered us. We were never there at dusk to watch them fly away (as we were away on game drives, though I think that would have been interesting. But I've never before in my life had the opportunity to study them as closely as during afternoons at the lodge. Fascinating!
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