By: Macey VanDenMeerendonk
The weather is changing in Wisconsin and the leaves are starting to fall. With Halloween right around the corner, the decorations of scary animals like spiders, bats, wolves, crows, and ravens are appearing around neighborhoods and stores. Giant spiders hanging on houses with fake spider webs caught in the front yard's trees and bushes, plastic bats hanging from the ceiling, pictures of crows and ravens guarding tombstones can all be seen down every street. Movies with werewolves and graveyards and creepy crawlies on TV networks that are meant to give people a fright. While these iconic creatures scare and creep during this spooky season, they serve a greater purpose that nature benefits from.
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Fishing Spider
Photo by: Mark Musselman,
National Audubon Society |
While spiders make most people paranoid and grossed out, they are big help with pest control. According to Rove Pest Control, Mike MacDonald wrote,
Spiders eat other spiders and pests such as flies, moths, centipedes, fleas, and even cockroaches.
They are a natural pest control solution for organic crops which helps reduce famine and food shortages." They may look scary and with some being harmful to humans, they have been given a bad reputation. They contribute to the health and safety of the food the world produces to feed the people in it. Next time you see one hanging out in a corner of your house, don't squish it in a napkin, instead capture it and let it go outside!
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Little Brown Bats
Photo by: John and Karen Hollingsworth,
USFWS |
Bats have a mysterious persona and tend to be misunderstood because of it. The way they hang upside down, that they have beady eyes and big ears, and their nocturnal lifestyle adds to the spooky character they're cast as in October. There are seven to eight types of bats in Wisconsin. In a document published by the Wisconsin DNR, the Little Brown, Big Brown, Eastern Pipistrelle, Northern Long-Eared, and Indiana bats are classified as cave bats. The Silver-Haired, Eastern Red, and Hoary bats are classified as tree bats. According to Wisconsin Bat Program,
"bats are important consumers for agricultural, forestry and human pest insects. It is estimated that bats in Wisconsin save farmers up to $658 million every year in the form of pest control services." Like spiders, they are helping hands in protecting human food sources. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wrote on their website that worldwide, bats are pollinators and seed-dispensers for many plants. The Wisconsin DNR says, "Bats in Wisconsin are insectivorous and are major predators of night-flying insects. A single bat can consume up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour and a pregnant female can consume her weight in insects every night."
They are active in helping wildlife while helping to control pest populations. Bat populations have been threatened with a disease called White-nose Syndrome (WNS). According to the Wisconsin DNR, "The disease is a fungus that was discovered growing on the muzzles and wings of hibernating bats. As the fungus spreads, it leaves a massive number of dead bats: up to 99 percent of bats can die in an infected hibernaculum." The Wisconsin DNR bat program has been inventorying and monitoring bat populations across the state to help stop the spread, study the disease and possible treatments for it, and helps further education of WNS.
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Gray Wolves
Photo by: Scott Flaherty,
USFWS |
The classic howl of a wolf in front of a big, bright full moon is a common image associated with these animals. Movies and children's stories turn these wild canines into menacing werewolves that are vicious and mythically exciting. While fantasy transforms them into something harmful, they are important to the circle of life in nature. According to Defenders of Wildlife, wolves play a key role in keeping ecosystems healthy and balanced. They said, "They help keep deer and elk populations in check, which can benefit many other plant and animal species. The carcasses of their prey also help to redistribute nutrients and provide food for other wildlife species, like grizzly bears and scavengers." An article by Wolf Country says that wolves hunt the sick, weak, old, and injured prey animals like elk, deer, moose, and caribou to help those populations remain strong so they don't swelter. "The wolf helps keep them healthy by ensuring the breeding of the strong," the article states. Wolves are powerful and intimidating animals who do a lot to sustain wildlife.
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American Crow
Photo by: Picasa |
Crows and Ravens have a bad reputation this time of year. Like a black cat, they are thought to be a bad omen if you come across them. While their calls and the flocks of them that hang out in branchy trees can be uneasy to hear and see, they happen to be very intelligent
animals. Nature Mentoring said, "There’s evidence to suggest that Ravens are better at pure intelligence-based problem solving, while Crows perform better when there’s a social element to the task (like facial recognition, and deciding who to trust)." Try to stay on these birds' good side because they'll remember who you are, they're that smart.
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Common Raven
Photo by: Piotr Krzeslak |
Bad reputations may give this season it's spooky and creepy theme for the people who enjoy a good scare, but it's necessary to know the importance of these animals. Their contributions to the greater good for wildlife should be protected by humans while being appreciated for their spooky and haunting characteristics. So is you happen to see one of these animals in the wild, try not to be frightened. Instead, remember all the great things they do for the environment.
Have a Happy Halloween from your friends at BCR!
