the mothbat in Guatemala

In July I spent two weeks in Guatemala photographing stories for Mennonite Central Committee's magazine "a Common Place". One of the areas we visited in the lush green mountains was Bezaleel School where students can participate in an agricultural program and learn how to plant all sorts of crops, bushes, and trees, as well as raise chickens and rabbits. One of the guys who was giving us the tour of the place told me how they used to raise sheep, but vampire bats had killed them all. I later asked Tara, an MCC worker, about the bats and she went on to tell me about a crazy scary experience that she had with bats a year or so before.

A group of people went on a trip to the lower lands where it is hot and humid and vampire bats are more common. Everyone slept in hammocks. A wall surrounded them and a ceiling was overhead, but there was space between the wall and the ceiling where creatures could get in. Because of the heat, no one covered up the first night. Low and behold the next morning several people awoke to discover that they had been bitten by the blood hungry vampire bats. One girl was bitten on her toes, another man on his nose...Tara explained that when the bats bite, there is something in their venom that numbs the skin, and also something that keeps the blood from clotting. This is so the blood will continue to flow and other bats can come and lick it. How gross!!!

So after hearing this story I was a bit freaked, even though it was highly unlikely that any vampire bats would be getting near me (being in the mountains and in a more urban area). I have a bit of insect/creature phobia, especially at night time when it's dark and I'm trying to sleep. That night we went back to Guatemala City, where of course there can't be any vampire bats, and Tara's story was still fresh in my mind. Around midnight I awoke in my top bunk to the sound of flapping wings circling on the ceiling above me. I grabbed my flashlight and shined it on a dark winged creature with glowing red eyes. I was scared stiff for a moment and called to Julie, the writer, sleeping below me, saying I thought a bat was in our room. She mumbled sleepily about how I could come down and sleep with her, but I could do no such thing with this nasty creature in our room. So I got down, turned on the light, examined the thing closer when it landed, and found it was just a huge dark brown ugly moth. I caught it under a trashcan lid and threw it outside! Hurrah!

And that, my friends, is the story of the mothbat.