Friday, February 17, 2012

Balam-Kú - the Bat volcano

If you see this sign in the higway
You are certainly on the Escarcega-Chetumal route near Calakmul.
The sign is serious, be aware (not afraid) of bats crossing the road after sunset.

There is a huge cave called Balam-Kú, residence of millions of bats.

Please SLOW-DOWN to 40 Km/h, yeah from those 120km/h you are doing in this brand-new super duper highway.
The speed reduction is needed for two things: avoiding an accident due to lossing control after hitting a bat and to avoid killing this amazing and very usefull animals.


Every night this millions of bats emerge from their cave to feed on the Calakmul biosphere forest. They are not looking to bite humans, but hunting for insects. Imagine what would happen if the bats didn't eat so many pests!!!!


The bats also pollinate flowers and when they eat the fruit, they help disseminate the seeds, so the forest gets three services from this usefull animal. Please don't kill them, they are harmless to humans and we need them a lot.



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