Teaching birds and bats in the schools – Day 1

Friday I taught at the UCI school where I taught in June. The kids remembered that the hawks eat rats and they shouldn’t crush the eggs! After reviewing the birds, I taught about bats. The older Haitians were taught in school that bats come from rats. The 1^st and 2^nd graders thought this. Three of the preschool classes didn’t know where bats came from, but in another preschool class one kid said they come from a tummy, and the kids reasoned that baby bats drink milk. The bat puppet was great for showing how the bats fly and that they have 5 fingers in each wing. I had to warn the kids that I was bringing out the bat and that it’s a toy. They all wanted to touch it after they got used to it, but one little girl still freaked out and cried when I pushed the bat towards her.

Bats of Haiti

This fall 2011 in Haiti I will start teaching about bats in addition to birds. There are 15 extant and 2 extinct species of bats in Haiti. I’m not finding much information about them, so am using this post to keep track of what I do find. If you have any suggestions please post a comment! Wordless resources or those in French or Creole would be most useful. I would especially like to find inexpensive prints of this poster (or donations of them) - http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Bats-Posters_i8065545_.htm

Caribbean conservation groups
Bat Conservation International - http://www.batcon.org/
Cayman Wildlife Connection - http://www.caymanwildlife.org/index.html

Anecdotal information

• The Haitians have many names for bats, all a variation of chovsourit which literally means old mouse. Many people believe that old mice metamorphose into bats. Variations – chòchòl, chovsourit, chatsouri, chatsourit, chichòt, chòdchòd, chòdchòt, chòfsourit, chòtchòt, chouchòl, chouchwòl, chòvsouri, chòvsourit, chwètchwèt, sovsouri, tchotchorit, tchòtchòt (Freeman Haitian-English Dictionary 2011). Baby bats would be called 'ti chòchòl' or 'pitit chòchòl' to emphasize that it is the offspring of the bats.
• I think some of the Haitians thought the cave swallows (irondel) were bats.
• Here’s a photo of man who collects and sells bat guano from a nearby cave that he owns.

Educational materials

• Laminated illustrations I use in Haiti - http://zwazoyo.blogspot.com/2011/03/life-cycle-and-food-chains-nan-kreyol.html
• Bat poster with French names (does anyone have this to donate?) - http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Bats-Posters_i8065545_.htm
• From Bat Con. Int’l - https://www.batcatalog.com/scripts/default.asp
• Scroll down to Bats Study Guide for Teachers and Students on http://www.caymanwildlife.org/index.html

Literature
Klingener, D.K., H.H. Genoways, and R.J. Baker. 1978. Bats from Southern Haiti. Annals of Carnegie Museum. 47:88–99.

Woods & Ottenwalder 1992. The Natural History of Southern Haiti. FL Museum of Nat. History., Univ. FL.