ZAGREB/VARAZDIN, Sept 9 (Hina) - What caused this summer's invasion of bats on Varazdin, the residents of this northern Croatian town keep asking, still waiting for a coherent answer. This year's stifling hot summer has made bats in
Varazdin simply "go crazy", residents of the Banfica suburb have complained. During the August mating season, the unusual night guests have made residents literally "freeze with fear," night after night.
ZAGREB/VARAZDIN, Sept 9 (Hina) - What caused this summer's invasion
of bats on Varazdin, the residents of this northern Croatian town
keep asking, still waiting for a coherent answer.
This year's stifling hot summer has made bats in Varazdin simply "go
crazy", residents of the Banfica suburb have complained. During the
August mating season, the unusual night guests have made residents
literally "freeze with fear," night after night.#L#
Only a few days ago, organisers of "Night of the Bat" said in Zagreb
the bat is Europe's most endangered mammal. The event was to be a
sort of call to the human race to let go of medieval prejudices and
preserve the creature in danger of extinction. The time to forget
prejudices, however, still seems away, as some journalists
reporting on the event wrote of the bat as of a creature which is
"neither bird nor mouse."
While fans of the "flying mouse" in the capital enjoyed the night
squealing of their new pets, the residents of Varazdin rebelled
against the uninvited guests. This summer, many of those living in
Banfica, the town's biggest suburb, experienced a bat occupation,
Varazdinske Vijesti weekly said in a recent article headlined
"Nightmare Bats".
"Despite not being hazardous to man unless touched, an encounter
with this frightened mammal in one's own flat is not pleasant," said
the article captioned "Flying Plague Over Banfica".
Everything seemed real as in horror movies, the article wrote. A
woman woke up with a bat entangled in her hair, others found them in
beds and under pillows. "The entire room was black with those
creatures," said Mrs Bogadi describing her encounter with the
endangered species, adding one night a bat had even snuggled
against her daughter's bosom!
"The scene defies description. They were hanging from the walls and
chandeliers, they hid in nooks, in the bed and the furniture, the
walls were full of animal excrement, it stank terribly," Mrs Bogadi
said describing the room her family was temporarily forced to
abandon due to the invasion of the "mice which fly".
"When I tried to chase them away, they came swooping on me,
squealing and baring their teeth," she said. "I know they are
protected by law, but if they represent a threat to lodgers, even
causing real traumas, wouldn't it be normal that they were
transferred to where they belong - nature?" Mrs Bogadi wondered.
The Bogadis contacted Stanoing, a firm in charge of their tenement
building, whose representative said a law adopted in April
prohibits "intentionally catching, holding, or killing bats."
In the past, the mating bats favoured a bridge over the Drava river.
But this summer something changed their minds, and Varazdin's
residents are at a loss as to what it could be.
(hina) ha