The Ben Mulroney Show - It's bat appreciation day! Do you like tequila? Then you better like bats!

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

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Welcome back. Today is International Bat Appreciation Day. And there are people out there who think bat and they think vampires and they think bloodthirsty and they think cold-blooded and they think rodent and they think scary. But these things play a very important role in larger ecosystems. And for that reason, we invited our next guest to join us to dispel some of the rumors, give us some information and allow us a new international appreciation of bats on said day. Olivia Ippelar, Humber's outdoor education instructor.

Thank you for joining us and welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Happy to be here and talk about bats. Yes. So tell me about, let's start with what people need to know about bats. And then we'll go into things that we have to dispel. Sure.

People need to know that eight, or sorry, we have eight species of bats in Ontario and seven of them are endangered. which is mostly in part to white nose syndrome, which is a fungus that grows in the areas like the nose or the mouth and the wings. And it causes them to have immense skin damage. And then they end up waking up during hibernation season. And their numbers have declined significantly since 2010 when the fungus was introduced to Ontario. How is it introduced? Do we know? Yeah, it's it's an invasive fungus that has traveled from human. Humans brought it over by going to European caves and then going to caves in the United States.

And so, so listen, my listeners will say, okay, I just learned something. They're endangered. But I don't care because they're creepy. and they sleep at night and what do they even do? Like, I never interact with a bat, so why should I care? Yeah, you should care. I'll start off with an easy one. If you're into tequila, bats are the only animals or creatures that pollinate the agave plant. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on.

I need you to, we're going to back this up. You're telling me that if we don't protect the bats, Ben Ben, Ben Ben loses his happy juice? Absolutely. Okay. So how do they, so they essentially pollinate the plant? They pollinate the plant, that's right. They are pollinators by flying.

So when they fly, their wings distribute the pollen off of the plant. That's insane. Yeah, for not only agave, but other plants as well. Mostly fruit bats do that. And the bats that we have in Ontario and Canada are mostly insectivores. Are they? Okay. So, yeah, I want to stay.

I'm sorry, we've got to stay with my tequila for a second here. Yeah. No, this is important. Are the bats that live in places of Mexico where they actually grow the agave plant? Are they endangered as well? I'm not specifically an expert on Mexican bats, actually. the bats the bats that I'm

more interested in are the insectivorous I got you listen I got you I got you just you threw a ticking time bomb into my world Olivia and I just

I'm now in desperate search for answers okay so we'll stick a pin in that we will go look at the feasibility of saving the tequila industry later let's stick with your insectivores here in Ontario yeah another one that might resonate

with folks in Canada specifically is mosquitoes. If you don't like mosquitoes, you'll love bats because they eat a lot of mosquitoes. Specifically, they can eat up to 600 mosquitoes in an hour, which is a lot. I thought you were going to say 600 a day and I was going to go, that's a lot of mosquitoes. 600 an hour. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

So they are our allies. If not our allies, it's the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That's right. Okay. That's one of the smaller bats as well. The larger bats can eat more. And there's also issues with light pollution, right? These are, their eyesight is not great.

They rely on sonar and seems to me in a louder world and a world with more light. That could cause issues for these animals. Absolutely. And it's definitely significant this week because this week is international another international It's dark sky week So what that means is that the moon is in a full moon So we can't see it in the sky this week

Which means it's very dark Sadly though if you're living in a city You're not going to see the dark sky In its darkest because we have residual lights That reflect into the sky Making night sky pretty dark If you're up north though You should be able to see

and more stars. But yeah, the bats are nocturnal. So they don't like light. That's another problem for them. And talk to me about the Humber Outdoor Education Program. Sure. So on Wednesday, I hosted a walk at the Humber Arboretum where I worked. And it was in, yeah, a celebration of Dark Sky Week and bats as well.

So we talked about ways that we can. make a difference in the lives of animals and plants and the biodiversity of Ontario overall. That's really what I do. The main job that I do is also communicating that to children and making it fun. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. But it feels to me like we're on the clock here in terms of saving these animals that on which are, you know, so much of the, they are part of an ecosystem.

When you get rid of them, I don't know what effects it's going to have, but if so many of them are endangered, what sort of motivation? Who should we be contacting the government level to fix this problem? I don't want to name drop anyone, but has anyone heard of Bill 5? Which is? Yeah, that's based, it is, long story short of it is, basically a bill that takes away the rights of more endangered species of Ontario specifically.

And that makes it so that the land around their habitat can be developed easier. Yeah. Yeah, it's a problem because. Because they need space. Yeah, they need space. Hybernaculums, which an example of that for a bat would be a cave in nature. they also need space around the cave, like forested areas where insects will live so that they can eat when they wake up after hibernation.

Yeah, so it's not just like, okay, in that cave is where all of the bats live, so we're going to protect that, but 20 feet after that, there's going to be a strip mall. Absolutely. Right. No, that makes sense. That makes sense.

I want to thank you so much for joining me. I think it's really important to dispel these things, because there's so much in popular culture demonizes the bat, And like you said, there's so many different types of them and we depend on them for so many different things. And by the way, I think it's so great that you are one of these educators that takes people into the natural world and takes them out into the world that we do need to protect. And I don't know whether to thank you for putting this on my radar or to damn you to hell for making me possibly think I could be living in a world without tequila. but I am now going to go find a Mexican philanthropic vehicle that is looking to pump money into protecting Mexican pollinating bats

so that I can have tequila from here till kingdom come. Thank you very much. And again, happy international bat appreciation day. Happy bad day and thanks, Ben, for doing your part. Thanks so much. Joy, did you learn something today? Oh, sure. I've learned something in every segment.

They say that you should learn at least one new thing a day. I learned that Canada has as 85% self-sufficient on its own jet fuel. Didn't know that. That makes me feel good. And we could do more. We could be an aviation superpower. And I learned that without bats, I don't have my freaking tequila. My alcohol.

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