Beverly Wallace is known around her rural neighborhood as the "Bat Whisperer." At her home between Sapulpa and Glenpool, Wallace dedicates her time to feeding, rehabilitating and generally caring for her nocturnal mammal friends, according to a recent article in the World.
Her home even acts as the staging ground for a nonprofit sanctuary, licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, called Bat's Landing " is it just us, or did anyone else just flash to a vision of melodramatic bats in '80s power suits with shoulder pads?
Wallace reportedly discovered her bat calling about seven years ago when she and her neighbor started suffering from a mosquito problem and " mosquito whisperer, you better flip to something else, it's about to get graphic " she got the "crazy notion" that bats could eradicate the bug problem.
From that first encounter, Wallace's bat love only grew. She traveled to Mineral Wells, Texas, for a "bat boot camp" at Bat World (yes, Bat World) and, besides raising the winged creatures, she also takes bat pick-up calls from around the Tulsa area from people who have bats in their homes, have found injured bats, or bats who have locked their keys in their bat cave.
"It's been a blessing to me to raise them and watch them grow, then able to release them. I've had quite good success at releasing a large number of pups, or baby bats," she told the World. "I've devoted my life to this."
Currently, Wallace is reportedly fostering several species, including a Hoary bat, the most widespread in the U.S., brown bats, red bats and something called an evening bat. In the summer, according to the article, she can care for as many as 60 pups.
But, that's not all. Wallace has been wild about animals since childhood, nursing animals such as armadillos, squirrels, birds and raccoons back to health. She and her husband once had 13 raccoons. Which, when we stop to think about it, is pretty batty.
