Merlin Tuttle > Quotes

“It is simply amazing how quickly attitudes improve when people finally understand bats as they really are—sophisticated, beautiful, even cute, quite aside from their crucial roles as primary predators of insects, pollinators of flowers, and dispersers of seeds.”
― Merlin Tuttle, The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals

“As I climbed back out of the sinkhole entrance, I met three men sitting in the shade of an oak tree. They were speculating on how much fun it would be to sometime throw a stick of dynamite into the cave to see how many bats would come out all at once. Of course the answer was none. They’d all be dead. These men weren’t maliciously inclined. They were simply ignorant and were quite apologetic when I explained the consequences of such an act. The appalling spectacle of how easily the world’s largest remaining bat colony could be destroyed by simple ignorance provided a strong reminder of just how important public education could be. I had no idea yet that the organization I had just founded would one day own and protect this key cave and use it to educate millions of people worldwide to understand the importance of conserving bats.”
― Merlin Tuttle, The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals

“Nutritional physiologist Claudia Coen reported that whenever she removed and returned a member of her captive colony of white-winged vampires (Diaemus youngi) to their cage, “They would greet each other, both vocally and through a ritual of pressing their noses into each other’s armpits and wrapping their wing membranes tight around in a ‘hug’ of welcome.” They were shy of strangers but greeted her as one of their own. She said, “They’ll nuzzle their noses between my fingers in greeting. They’re enchanting!” Coen also reported that her bats liked to cuddle, and they played with exuberance.”
― Merlin Tuttle, The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals