The origins and traditions of Halloween can be a bit strange. Though similar holidays are celebrated in many cultures, Americans largely have the Irish to thank for their celebrations, owing to the holiday's origins in Celtic practices. When Irish immigrants swept into America after the potato famine of the 1840s, they brought their traditions with them. Bonfires at Halloween often included sacrifices of animals or humans.
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| A Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) comes in for a close-up as it leaves its cave to hunt. Every night from March to October, 1.5 million of these bats stream out from beneath a bridge in downtown Austin, Texas. Photo: Joel Sartore with Cole Sartore |
Bats have long been associated with vampires, witches, and Halloween. But their bad reputation looks more like a trick than a treat.
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| Mexican-free-tailed bats emerging from Carlsbad Caverns, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. Photo: Nick Hristov |
Bats matter in a big way in countless ecosystems around the world. In truth, the only thing scary about bats is the rate at which they're disappearing.
Bats are a wildly diverse order of mammals, with more than 1,300 species worldwide. About one out of every five mammal species is a bat.
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| A Flying Fox Bat (Pteropus vampyrus) hugs its baby tight beneath folded wings in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park in Australia. Like all mammals, mother bats nurse their young with mammary glands that produce milk. Photo: Jason Edwards. |
Despite the way they're often depicted in movies and television, only three species of bats feed exclusively on blood. Most species—around 70%—eat insects, making them invaluable partners in human agriculture by removing crop pests. The remaining bat species eat nectar and fruit and serve as some of the best pollinators and seed dispersers on the planet.
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Promoting understanding of the essential contributions of bats to human economies and healthy ecosystems.
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| Greater bull-dog bats (Noctilio leporinus) have huge hind feet, flattened toes and sharp claws for snatching minnows from ponds in Latin America. |
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| Not all bats eat bugs, or blood. Some prefer flower pollen, which they pass from tree to tree. In fact, some plants are pollinated exclusively by bats. Photo: Merlin Tuttle |
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| An Orange Nectar Bat (Lonchophylla robusta) extends a long, nimble tongue to feed on a bromeliad flower's nectar. Like a hummingbird, the bat hovers near the flower long enough to insert its tongue and lap up the flower's sweet food. Photo: Merlin Tuttle |
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| A bat gets a fresh dusting of pollen while trying to eat the nectar of a blue mahoe tree (Talipariti elatum) in Cuba. In Mexico, bats are important pollinators of agave, which is used to make tequila. Photo: Merlin Tuttle |
Unfortunately, these creatures are in serious trouble.
"Bats are facing many threats, including impacts from wind energy, loss of habitat, and the disease known as white-nose syndrome," said Ann Froschauer, public affairs supervisor at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and a longtime bat advocate.
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| White-nose syndrome has ravaged the wings of this little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). Named for the white fuzz it leaves on the noses of hibernating bats, white-nose syndrome is thought to have been introduced to North America from Europe. It was first identified in upstate New York in the winter of 2006-07. The disease seems to affect bats while they're hibernating. Photo: Stephen Alvarez |
Bat Mortality
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), white-nose syndrome has killed more than six million bats in just six years. (See "Bats May Be Wiped Out by Fungus in U.S. Northeast."
To help inform the world about bats and their plight, the FWS and the USDA have teamed up to present a whole week of bat education and awareness—just in time for Halloween!
National Bat Week
The first National Bat Week is sort of symbolic of growing interest in bat conservation and education," said Froschauer. "It's a really great opportunity for us to work with partners like Bat Conservation International, the Organization for Bat Conservation, and the Save Lucy Campaign so that we can educate people about why bats are so important and why we need more bat conservation and research."
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| The Little Red Flying Fox (Pteropus scapulatus) is a type of bat native to Australia. Here one is tested for the Hendra virus, which is a rare but potentially lethal virus that can be passed from bats to horses, and then from horses to humans. Photo: Lynn Johnson. |
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| Not all bats prefer to roost in caves. The Spectacled Flying Foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus), pictured here, are happiest high in the canopy of the rain forest. Photo: Jason Edwards. |
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| A colony of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousetus aegyptiacus) hang out in a cave in the Maramagambo Forest of Uganda. Scientists tested the bats for the Marburg virus, since fruit bats are a natural reservoir for the disease. Photo: Joel Sartore. |
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| Some tropical species, like these Honduran White Bats (Ectophylla alba), have been observed to make tents out of leaves. The tiny bats bite through a leaf's veins so that it droops down and forms a crevice in which they can hide. Photo: Konrad Wothe |
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| Noack's Roundleaf Bats (Hipposideros ruber) huddle by the thousands in a cave on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. This species is one of the most common bat species in Africa. A single colony can contain as many as 500,000 individuals. Photo: Joel Sartore. |
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| Three Striped Yellow-eared bats (Vampyressa nymphaea) roost together under a leaf. These kinds of bats are rather uncommon, occupying mature forests from Nicaragua to Ecuador. They are thought to roost in harems consisting of one male and several females. Photo: James Christensen. |
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| Ben Affleck (Actor fortis decorus aspectu). |
National Bat Week has even gained the support of several celebrities, including the new Batman himself, Ben Affleck. To learn how you can help save bats, watch the cast and crew of Batman vs. Superman discuss bat conservation in the video below or go to www.savebats.org.
We're Watching and Reading
Sunday's episode of "the Walking Dead" appeared to kill off a major character that has been a part of the series since Season 1. But is Glenn (Steven Yeun) really dead? Glen, the original pizza delivery man of the zombie apocalypse and our favorite fictional TV boyfriend, met with what appeared to be his end unless that was somebody else's freshly liberated intestines being eaten by zombies during the episode's ghastly climax.
The 5 Best Theories Below
on what really happened:
1. The Walkers Were Eating Nicholas, not Glenn
After Nicholas shoots himself, his body falls on top of Glenn as they both fall of the dumpster they were using as refuge from a herd of walkers. The angle of the camera never lets viewers see if the walkers are truly eating Glenn’s body or Nicholas’, so there is a chance Glenn could survive if…
2. Nicholas’ Remains Camouflaged Glenn
Characters have cheated death numerous times on the show by covering themselves in blood and entrails, rendering them all but invisible to walkers. If the walkers tore Nicholas’ body apart, the resulting carnage could shield Glenn, enough so that he could escape.Also Read: 'Walking Dead' Showrunner Teases Return for Fan-Favorite Character
3. Glenn Rolled Under the Dumpster
If the walkers were sufficiently distracted with Nicholas, it could have given Glenn the opportunity to roll under the nearby dumpster to relative safety. Once underneath, Glenn could employ the quick thinking that has made him a fan favorite in order to escape.
4. Glenn Dies Very Differently in the Comics
In “The Walking Dead” graphic novels, Glenn does not die at the hands of walkers, but rather one of the living. Negan, the leader of a vicious group called The Saviors, murders Glenn with a baseball bat. While still a grisly end, fans of the show are hoping Glenn will live to die another day.
5. Enid Saves Glenn
In episode two of this season, Alexandria resident Enid fled the community after the attack by The Wolves. Some are hoping that she will find Glenn before the walkers get to him and distract them enough for him to escape.
6. Lady Melisandre Resurrects Glenn
Just kidding. (But how sweet would a “Game of Thrones”/”Walking Dead” crossover episode be?).
Halloween has its origins in the Celtic ritual of Samhain (pronounced sow-wen or sow-ween), a festival for the end of summer, thus Americans largerly have the Irish to thank for their celebrations, owing to the holiday's origins in Celtic practices including huge bonfires at Samhain, with sacrificed animals or. . . humans.
Did you guess "The Exorcist" (1973) or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974, 2003), or "The Amityville Horror" (1979)? Maybe. . .but you'll never guess all 13.
These pumpkins take Halloween to the next level.
From "The Haunting" (1963) to 1978's "Halloween". . .
Allison (Miranda Otto) is indeed, as so many of you sensed episodes ago, a conniving snake. It is she who set up Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) to kill Carrie (Claire Danes); she who, presumably, has facilitated the blowing-to-bits of General Youssef (Igal Naor) and his family, foiling the United States’s plans for regime change in Syria. She’s batting for the Russians. She wouldn’t even consider sparing the life of a girl who’d just had a kidney transplant.
You know when I began to suspect I’d been taken for a ride?
It was when she showed up in her Swiss medical clinic administrator’s costume. The length of her skirt was unattractive — something we would not normally see on TV — and it signaled to me, in that same split-second flash-of-insight way that allows Carrie and Quinn to react just in time to save their lives when they’re under sudden attack, that something was terribly amiss.
Halloween makeup is much more than sugar skulls and zombie prosthetics. It can be pretty, sophisticated—and not at all ghoulish. Kabuki, shows three Halloween looks inspired by the 2016 season.