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Students Get Bat Lesson

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By KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: December 21, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - W.C. Fields once warned never to work with animals or small children.

That's sound advice if you're trying to revive Vaudeville, but in education, kids and critters make for a fun and informative time, as was seen recently at Seven Springs Elementary School, as students welcomed a pair of guest speakers whose visual aids were of the living, breathing variety.

Florida Bat Conservancy assistant director Jennifer Smith came by to separate fact from fiction about bats.

Her visit was followed by an appearance by Melinda Mendolusky, who brought with her a menagerie of creatures from all over the world. Mendolusky is the "Animal Ambassador" for the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa.

The animal onslaught marked the conclusion of a unit being studied throughout the school on how animals are adapted to their habitats.

"We have themes; everybody is on the same theme at the same time," said media specialist Barb Huling, who arranged for Smith to bring her bats.

Huling said she got the idea to invite Smith to the school after she'd read a story, "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat," to some of the younger students.

With Halloween gone, this is the tail end of the busy season for those in the bat business, Smith said. But it's a gratifying time, when she gets to dispel the myths and show the interesting reality about bats.

"The big key point is to get kids to understand that bats are not all the same," Smith said. "They're all different; they all have a beneficial purpose."

Wherever she takes her presentation, Smith is greeted with a combination of curiosity and dread from adults and children alike, she said. They're expecting fanged, blood-sucking, seagull-sized monsters that are ready to swoop straight for the neck of the nearest innocent victim.

But children are quick to warm up when she shows them a slide show on the winged mammals that includes close-ups of varieties of bats.

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