Farmers kill dog-like bats attacking agriculture farms in Sujawal village

SUJAWAL: Mega-bats attack standing crops in a village in Sujawal district, citing local farmers ARY News reported on Thursday.

The bats with wing spans of more than four feet with a dog-like face are attacking agriculture farms in Village Nodo Baran in Sujawal district, local villagers claimed.

According to local sources, the farmers have shot dead around 40 dog-bats in the village.

The villagers have invited attention of the government authorities for help to get rid of the rare menace faced by the local farmers.

It is to be mentioned here that the bats in such a large size were earlier reported in the katcha area of Piryalo in northern Sindh in year 2015.

These scary creatures were reportedly eating mangoes and dates in the orchards of the area.

According to reports these bats are not only scary for their size and ability to inflict harm on the farms and orchards. But, the bats also called large flying foxes or fruit bats, can sometimes act as reservoirs and vectors for a range of diseases and viruses which are potentially lethal to humans and other animals.

According to a report, fruit bats may be a natural reservoir for Ebola and may have been the mechanism by which the Zaire strain of Ebola virus was transported some 3,200 kilometres to Ivory Coast in West Africa.