Tonight, August 29, 2020, is International Bat Night. The UNEP/Eurobats organization explains:
The Bat Night has taken place every year since 1997 in more than 30 countries on the last full weekend of August.
Nature conservation agencies and NGOs from across Europe pass on information to the public about the way bats live and their needs with presentations, exhibitions and bat walks, often offering the opportunity to listen to bat sounds with the support of ultrasound technology. The general date is set for the last full weekend in August; however, local organisers sometimes choose other dates if more convenient. For the 24th International Bat Night the date is 29-30 August 2020.
One ought not confuse International Bat Night with Bat Day at Yankee Stadium.
Bat Day at Yankee Stadium
Bat Day at Yankee Stadium received scholarly attention some years ago, notably in the medical report:
“Impact of Yankee Stadium Bat Day on Blunt Trauma in Northern New York City,” by S. L. Bernstein, W. P. Rennie, and K. Alagappan, Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 23, no. 3, 1994, pp. 555-59. The authors sought to determine the incidence of blunt trauma in northern New York City before and after the distribution of 25,000 baseball bats at Yankee Stadium. They conclude that:
“The distribution of 25,000 wooden baseball bats to attendees at Yankee Stadium did not increase the incidence of bat-related trauma in the Bronx and northern Manhattan. There was a positive correlation between daily temperature and the incidence of bat injury. The informal but common impressions of emergency clinicians about the cause-and-effect relationship between Bat Day and bat trauma were unfounded.”