Bats by their nature are neither rats nor birds, a characteristic considered mischievous by the Yoruba in Southwest, Nigeria. So one can imagine what the reaction would be to the presence of bats in their thousands living among humans.
This is exactly the situation in Erunbe village in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, where residents have been cohabiting with bats for decades but without any major health or spiritual consequences.
The ancient community, some few distance from the State Hospital, Ijaiye, has been in existence for over a century. The people whose ancestors were hunters and farmers from Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba in the present day state of Osun, still retain the culture of their forebears.
The seedy neighbourhood is in a way friendly with animals and particularly bats. Often times, bats stray into their homes, give out indistinct sound that constitute noise and they had to cope with all of these, aside the not so pleasant odour from their routine droppings and vomits on rooftops, playgrounds and on the sorrounding below their roost area.
First time visitors to the community from another clime are always shocked at the sight of bats in their thousands which audaciously take shelter on the branches and trunk of an Iroko tree that is said to have provided the villagers shade for ages on sunny days.
For decades they had co-habited with the mammals and the bat too had enjoyed the hospitality of the residents of the area even though they are occasionally preyed upon as source of animal protein while some complained that their presence in a residential area could pose health risk to humans.
The Nation on its first visit to the community observed a young man dissecting a bat he had hunted in preparation for a soup of bats and was instructing a girl of about five years old to wash the medium size aluminum pot adjacent to him in readiness for the soup making. Apparently, the slaughtered bat would serve as meat on the menu of the family’s dinner that night.
A move to find out how a delicacy of bat taste from the man hit a brick wall as he scared off the reporter with a stern look.
Another man also pointed out a bat that hung-dried on a PHCN cable/wire that supplied light to a building within the community. The bat, he said, was electrocuted a week earlier while trying to get to its roost on the Iroko tree.
Tracing how the bats came to settle in the area, the traditional head and Aro of Erunbe community, Chief Lemoboye Sojobi, told The Nation that about thirty years ago, they woke up one day to see the mammals in their thousands on the lone Iroko tree in the neighbourhood and that all were initially terrified.
For a culture that persecute bats and paint it in a bad light, he said the community met and deliberated on what to do in respect of the mystery visitors – bats.
He said a team was raised which consulted an Ifa Priest and his Oracle to ascertain if the coming of the bats portend something toward to the community.
According him, the Oracle told them not to drive their visitors away, that their presence in the community would signpost “peace, prosperity and increase the number migrating into Erunbe.”
He said bats are “wonderful” animals and possess some innate esoteric power. He said residents don’t deliberately hunt them for food but wait for rainy season when they normally roost (cluster) in large numbers on the tree trunk and branches.
According to him, when they cluster on such tree trunks and branches, the load becomes too heavy for the tree to bear and the branch or trunk eventually breaks, thereby spilling the bats in their hundreds onto the ground for easy pick or killing by the people.
Apparently to highlight the mysterious or mystical nature of the bats, the community head who spoke through an interpreter recalled that few years ago, some youths who attempted to hunt down a cluster/roosts of bats with a local gun had a bitter experience.
He explained that the chamber of the gun burst when they aimed and shot on the mammals, and bullets that exited backward injured them. However, the peace of the bats in Erunbe was momentarily disrupted for days in the last quarter of 2013 when another group of bats from a nearby settlement attempted to join them as roost mates but they were resisted in a manner that resulted in frequent bats-fight.
The intruder – bats were originally roosting on a giant tree adjacent to Ile–Ogboni Ijeun along Sapon -Ijeun road, but they were evicted when the tree housing them was cut down by the government to give way to the on-going road expansion project in the Gateway State.
Investigation by The Nation revealed that the bats in Erunbe village did not drop from the sky. They were formerly living in a colony many decades ago at the abandoned premises of the Anglican Church, Oke-Igbein which formerly hosted a secondary school and the Teaching Hospital of the Veterinary Medicine Faculty of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
Following the occupation of the premises by FUNAAB and subsequent felling of the trees there, the bats scattered in different directions in search of new abode. While some settled in Erunbe community, others relocated to Imo village, where they settled on a 100years-old tree called Ogburugburu opposite late Mrs Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s one storey building along NEPA (PHCN) road, Imo, Abeokuta.
At Imo, the bats there are not only guarded jealously by the residents not only because of their sheer population running into 7,000 and more, but also for the regular traffic of visitors to their abode.
Alhaji Olajire Isiaq, who guided the reporter to the site, said people from different places visit there frequently to hunt the bats for reasons ranging from academic research, source of animal protein to religious sacrifice, saying the animals have been living in Imo community for over two decades now.
Isiaq said: “The animals have been here for well over 20 years, they were more in number before because we had lots of trees here and they took abode on the trees but when the trees were cut off by the University of Agriculture when they operated from here, the bats came to settle here.
“The trees were in the compound of the UNAAB school but when they cut the trees the bats scattered.
People come here to look for them either for food, religious purpose while other came for research. They harvest it with gun, basket or native power. People pay to get it.”
Also, Mr Nureni Aminu, a member of Imo community, said some people pay as much as N5,000:00 to have access to hunt the animal.
But experts are saying bats could be carriers of pathogenic organisms and some could be rabid. And if attacked, bats could bite and claw at the attacker/hunter in self -defence.
However, there has been no report yet of bat bite on residents either at Erunbe or Imo, or their presence linked to any health challenge in the two communities, but the experts insist man can get rabies not only from dogs but also from bats which may prove fatal if untreated.
Dr Lawal Olusegun Adebayo of the Applied Zoology and Plant Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, who noted that bats are found in most part of the country nay the world, said aside rabies, human beings could also contact a lung disease called Histoplasmosis characterised by shortness of breath, sweating, chest pain and coughing.
Adebayo said: “The reason you find them (bats) in residential areas now is because of migration resulting from decimation of their habitats – by man and civilisations and that they move in colony. When they are disturbed, they migrate to another location in search of shelter”.
One may be afflicted with the disease when one inhales spores produced by the Histoplama fungus. Areas that contains bat droppings may carry larger percentage of the fungi organism that causes the disease.
