In the earliest world when all was dark, the bat was born. Half-bird, half-beast, this liminal, mysterious and erratic creature is somehow apart or in-between, and does not fit into the normal order of things.
From the dark underworld comes the bat, ambiguous mentor of the foreboding night, gliding to its banishment with supernatural trickery, magic, witchcraft, shape-shifting, malevolence, death, destruction and decay. Re- imagined as fiction- al characters in popular culture, this nocturnal animal becomes legions of versions of the evil vampire Count Dracula and the hero Batman.
Positively aligned in some cultures with happiness, longevity and good fortune, bats also present as sacred spirits – intuitive, watchful, wakeful, and vigilant. Imag- es of bats appear in Heraldic symbols, coats of arms and State insignias.
In the beginning, human beings and all living creatures existed together in har- mony, mutual respect and inter-dependence. Then humans disregarded animals’ rights, provoking their hostility. Human beings do not share the planet with ani- mals and with nature. Instead we dominate and inflict unimaginable suffering on most life forms and on each other, resulting in climate change and an alarming number of other escalating catastrophic events.
Man’s destructive environmental, ecological and lifestyle practices coupled with his invasion of animal territories, create Monster Mergers in which viruses invade human bodies as their hosts. Deadly diseases have been unlocked – more recently the 1918 Bird Flu Influenza, HIV/Aids, Sars, Mers and Swine Influenzas. Despite being generally beneficial to our planet’s ecosystems, bats are the most likely source of the novel Coronavirus. The highly mobile, social, and long-lived bat is a natural reservoir of many pathogens and is perfectly situated to spread disease.
The great Amazon Forest, often referred to as “the Lungs of the World”, is now being plundered and stripped of its resources at breakneck speed by corrupt political practices and big business. What new and as yet unknown diseases will be unlocked from the Amazon jungle?
The world has been forcibly brought to its knees by Covid-19. Surely, this is THE “opportunity of our lifetime” to change the way we live. But will we change? Or will we continue in our self-inflicted suffering towards early extinction?

-Roberta Stoddart