CW: death positivity , trans surgery mention ️⚧️, and Bats ______________________________
In english and spanish translations of the Mayan legend, Camazotz is often called the “Death Bat” (“Zotz” meaning bat in the k'iche’ language). They are entities of the underworld and symbols of sacrifice, death, and the night.
While there are fearful tales of them in their native culture, it is important to remember that in many cultures - cosmic beings were not altogether viewed through the western lense of “good and evil”. In fact, in many pre-columbian mesoamerican philosophies the primary dichotmomy was Chaos and Order, with the universe existing in the balance between the two. (and as a physics loving person this makes my heart sing )
Camazotz (sometimes said to be one entity that was “he”, or many of a type of entity that were “they”) to me, is a symbol of natural forces embodying Life and Death. To die is to be unwoven, and return to the earth. To live is to be re-ordered from the unwoven universe. To sacrifice… is to give up personal safety or the order of the status quo - and is something I feel has been relevant to many communities in our ongoing fight for Justice. Though what we work for, is a system that does not make us sacrifice ourselves. ✊✊✊️⚧️️♿
I was REALLY thinking about bats and about my life in general. And yes! this is my Halloween pumpkin. I carved it on Dec. 25th even though I had it since mid October because of my top surgery making it hard to lift or use my arm muscles ️⚧️
(I like to think I sacrificed my chesticles,returned them to theChaos, and rebuilt the place my heart rests…)
I wanted to donate the pumpkin to @batworldsanctuary for the bats to snack on (they take donations!), but they can’t take carved ones .
Convergent evolution is wild, bc like, crabs keep evolving to look the same but aren’t closely related, nature is just like: BIG MEATY CLAWS, little legs, pincers, head, tiny eyes, let’s do it again!
and trees look the same but oak trees are more closely related to rose bushes than they are pine trees, fucked up
nature just likes these damns shapes:
but on the other hand, mammals flying with powered flight?? That shit only happened ONCE and it had to do some janky shit to get there, especially with bat immune systems
likebat’s immune systems are HYPER-POWERED as well as repress most of their inflammatory reactions because in order to fly they needed a bonkers-high metabolic rate which unfortunately also create waste products from the process called “free radicals” that damage cells
however, despite these free radicals they manage to live up to FORTY YEARS, which is super long for a species their size, because their immune system are basically always ON and in an anti-viral state that make them incubators for disease due to warfare between their jacked immune systems and disease
bats are so gdamn weird, I love them, no other mammal has been able to copy off their homework and accomplish the same shape, and for that they are the anti-crab of the natural world, God bless
It really worked out for them too, like it’s a hell of a lane and they have it all to themselves, so they’ve really filled their niche. There are more bats than almost any other kind of mammal. Like, there are a higher number of individual bats, but also the most KINDS of bat.
For example there are about 30 million white-tailed deer alive in the world, whereas there are 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats living in ONE single colony in Texas. But also, there are about 43 species of deer on the whole planet, 38 species of feline, 34 species of canine… and about 1,300 species of bat.
It is estimated that one out of every five living mammals on Earth is a bat, or, to put it another way, if you took every single mammal on the planet and counted them as individuals, 20% of those animals would be some kind of bat.
In honor of bat appreciation month and it being the spooky time of year, here are some awesome facts about bats!
Bats can fly up to 60 mph.
A baby bat is called a pup. Mothers will usually only have one pup per year and can find their pup within thousands of other bats.
The largest bat has a wingspan of 6 feet and is called the “flying fox”
Bats are mammals and the only mammals that fly.
Over 1,000 bat species have been recorded. They make one fifth of the world’s mammals.
At birth, a pup weighs about 25% of the mothers body weight. This is, on average, equivalent to a human mother giving birth to a 31 pound baby.
70% of bats consume insects. They are very important in our world’s ecosystem where they keep the insect population low.
Bats are endangered for many reasons. Mostly, like most animals, because of habitat loss due to deforestation. Saving bats are important as they are important to our ecosystem, and because they are just awesome animals. To learn more about bats and what you can do to help visit, here.
Pictured: Juvenile Mariana Fruit bat by: USFWS via Flickr
