Bats, Rabies and Control Problems

Abstract

In both North and South America rabies is carried by bats, especially the vampire bats in the warmer central countries. Every country in the two continents, with only three exceptions, and every state in the USA, with only two exceptions, has reported rabid bats. As rabies is fatal to both humans and domestic animals control measures are essential. The author, who was for many years in charge of vampire-bat control in Trinidad, where in the ten years up to 1935, 89 humans and thousands of cattle died of paralytic rabies, emphasises that bats are beneficial animals and that control must be aimed, not at indiscriminate destruction of bats, but to regulate the population levels, and that care must be taken not to involve other species. © 1968, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.