If You Believe All You Hear It Will Drive You Batty

Taking center stage this week into next, along with ghouls, ghosts and goblins, are creatures of the night that really exist . . . bats.

Halloween wouldn’t be the same without these crook-winged, blood-sucking vermin, threatening to swoop down out of the blackness and sink their fangs into the nape of your neck, infecting you with rabies, or worse, turning you into a werewolf.

But there are spoilsports in our midst, trying to turn fiction into fact.

In a news release obviously timed to coincide with Fright Night festivities, the California Department of Fish and Game announced that bats are not after our blood and, in fact, are our friends. Only a tiny percentage carry rabies and there is not one bat in any belfry possessing the powers to transform you into something you are not.

In short, bats are getting a bad rap.

“Bats have been called the Rodney Dangerfield of the animal kingdom,” says Betsy Bolster, a bat specialist for the Department of Fish and Game. “They get no respect.”

In hopes of boosting the image of her fine, furry friends, Bolster points out that there are only three species of bats that drink blood, and the notorious vampire bats of South and Central America prefer to suck theirs--an ounce or two at a time--from livestock, not humans. Vampires, in fact, are among the most kind-hearted of bats, often adopting orphaned bats and sharing food with other bats in the roost.

Bats are neither rodents with wings nor birds, Bolster adds, but mammals under the scientific classification Chiroptera, Latin for “hand-wing.” Less than 1% have rabies, though a bat will bite if handled.

Bolster is the DFG biologist who fields questions from homeowners asking how best to eradicate the errant fliers, who come out at dusk and spook their children. She points out that bats are no threat to kids and actually are beneficial to humans, controlling insect populations that would otherwise boom.

In California, some bats can gobble up 600 mosquitoes an hour. A colony of big brown bats--one of the state’s most common species--protects farmers from more than 33 million rootworms each summer.

Bats can live about 20 years and produce only one offspring a year, and thus are highly susceptible to human disturbance. Of the 24 species in California, 14 are considered “species of special concern,” and of those, some might eventually gain protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Worthy of respect? Perhaps. But where’s the fun in that?

BAJA BEAT

An autopsy on Lorenzo Madrid, a Malibu resident who died earlier this month after becoming stranded with his companion and Mexican guide on a deserted island in the Sea of Cortez, concluded that the primary causes of death were “dehydration and malnourishment.”

Madrid, who was buried Tuesday in Orange, collapsed and died 11 days into an ordeal that ended two days later, on Oct. 17, when his companion, Joseph Rangel of Pedley, Calif., and guide, Jose Luis Ramos Garcia, were rescued by local fishermen.

They were stranded on Isla Angel de la Guarda, about 125 miles from the northern Baja California port city of San Felipe, after their 22-foot skiff became separated from its mother ship and was forced ashore in strong winds as darkness fell on Oct. 4.

Rangel, who said he survived by eating mostly raw crabs, sea cucumbers, sea snails and grasshoppers, was released from a San Diego hospital Wednesday and is recovering from fairly serious leg wounds.

The incident remains under investigation and criminal charges could be filed against the mother ship’s captain and others if negligence is determined to have led to Madrid’s death. Bob Castellon, owner of the 87-foot mother ship with a booking business in Hacienda Heights, has not made himself available to reporters.

HOT BITES

* Cabo San Lucas: The annual Bisbee Black and Blue Jackpot Tournament is in progress off Land’s End, with 958 anglers aboard 234 boats vying for $2,375,910 in prize money. The top fish as of Thursday afternoon was a 470-pound blue marlin caught Wednesday aboard Picante Express. Second was a 395-pound blue hauled aboard Rora II. The three-day extravaganza ends today.

* San Diego long-range: Craig Chaney of Little Rock, Calif., claimed the first 200-pound yellowfin tuna of San Diego’s long-range season after outlasting a 225-pound monster in 2 1/2 hours while on an 11-day trip aboard the Shogun.

* Morro Bay: Albacore fishing remains good--if you can get out. Stormy seas have done a good job of protecting the fish by keeping the fleet at bay more days than not in the last week. The tuna are averaging 20-30 pounds and one hauled aboard a Virg’s Landing boat weighed 50 pounds. Details: (800) 762-5263.

FIELD NOTES

* Two weeks of warm weather have not been kind to deer hunters in Southland zones, as the animals have for the most part remained in the high country and out of the shooters’ comfort zone.

The DFG rated the Oct. 14 opener “disappointing” in all but the Coxie Meadow area in Zone D14 northwest of Big Bear Lake. At least 24 bucks were bagged and credit was given the 1999 wildfire that created an extensive burn area that has since become a favorite browsing area for deer feeding on new-growth vegetation.

* The Southland waterfowl season is nothing to crow about, either, as birds-per-hunter averages remain below three a day at most local hunting areas.

* Prospects are poor to fair in Imperial and Riverside counties for the second half of the dove season beginning Nov. 11. Hunters who scout ahead of time, however, should be able to scare up a few doves before the 8 a.m. start of pheasant season the same day. Prospects are good to excellent for the pheasant opener throughout much of Imperial County.

UPHILL BATTLE

The 12 yachts racing around the world in the BT Global Challenge--the wrong way, against the currents and prevailing winds--are a week into their second leg, en route from Boston to Buenos Aires, Argentina, a little wet and weary but otherwise in pretty good shape.

They were greeted this week by their first significant storm, Hurricane Michael, whose gusts to 80 mph caused them to take evasive action east and west. Reported Glenda Porter aboard Compaq: “I go through several stages of seasickness. I feel cold and sleepy, then feel nauseous, then have to go horizontal for a few hours. Then I either throw up or get tough with myself and get myself right.”

Storm-related injuries were mostly minor: two broken fingers for one sailor and a gash in the head of an on-board medic, who had someone videotape her scalp so she could make a self-diagnosis.

The seven-leg, 30,000-mile journey is expected to end next June.

The expedition’s Internet site: https://www.btchallenge.com.

NEWLYWED GAME

It was an obscure ad in the classified section of the San Francisco Chronicle’s sporting green: “NEWLYWED Big wave surfer. Must sell awesome surf gear or lose beautiful wife. Call with offer or advise.”

But it was effective. The offers came and people advised. Trouble was, Grant Washburn didn’t place the ad and when he returned from his honeymoon earlier this month, he was overwhelmed by all of the responses on his answering machine.

“We came home [to San Francisco] and there were about 40 messages on my machine,” Washburn said. “And we’re still getting calls. Most people think it’s real. Some are just looking for the lucky [surfboard] score, but about a third are giving advice.

“There was a woman who said, ‘You should just let your man surf, because if you don’t, you’re going to lose him anyway.’ And there was a guy who said, ‘Lose the wife. If she won’t let you surf, she’s not worth keeping.’ And there was one woman who suggested that my wife start surfing with me so we can enjoy the experience together.’ ”

Turned out, Washburn’s sister had placed the ad as a joke. Washburn might have the last laugh, though.

“I actually do have a board I’d like to sell,” he said.

WINDING UP

The California Fish and Game Commission, in an emergency action last Friday, ordered a statewide closure of all ocean fishing for lingcod in November and December. The action was taken amid concerns that the lingcod harvest “will exceed its allowable catch for 2000.” Lingcod are also included in a general rockfish closure off Southern California in January and February, and off Central California in March and April. The closures are part of a plan to rebuild stocks of mostly rockfish determined to be “overfished.”

* FISH REPORT, D14