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The bat that flew away and the one that got stuffed |
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Written by Manoj Kurian
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Thursday, 25 June 2009 11:36 |
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It was probably when we studied in class VI. During the lunch break, Thomas C Mathew and I found a very young bat pup on the ground among the leafy rubber trees near the auditorium. It was very young, lost, helpless, hairless and yet to open its eyes. Its mother was no where in sight. We put it in a small container and decided that Thomas C Mathew would take it home. His mother being a Professor in Zoology at Women’s college- we figured could be of some help in taking care of this small creature. In fact he was successful in nurturing it with his mother’s guidance. He told me that since bat’s milk is of very high fat content they fed it with fresh cream of milk. He was successful in bringing it up to the day it could fly away. His only regret was that it never returned to visit its step mother - Thomas C Mathew- to say thank you, or squeak hello. Perhaps Thomas C Mathew’s night life in those early days was not active enough to meet up with the bat. Probably the ungrateful creature forgot him. At least in that sense, - bats are similar to us human beings. My encounters with bats in my school days after that was more morbid. In class 9 - I happened to recover a dead large adult bat- which had been electrocuted that day. It met the unfortunate fate when it tried to take hang around a live electric wire. It was a good opportunity to closely observe this unfortunate- but well preserved flying mammal, which was impressive even in its death. The fleas on the creature were sill alive and hopping around! Fr CP Varkey happened to pass by and decided that the creature had to stuffed and preserved. CP, being the resourceful guy he was, contacted the Director of the Museum – whose son happened to study in Loyola – as our junior, for assistance of trained taxidermists to resurrect and preserve the creature. So off I went, that evening , in the school bus, with the driver- and handed over the dead bat to the Museum director. Eventually the mounted creature returned, to grace one of the shelves in the waiting room of the Principal. Eerie, but interesting. Manoj
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Last Updated on Thursday, 25 June 2009 13:08 |
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