Are bats creepy or cute? Alabama’s own “Bat Lady” can help you decide — and the answer is probably going to be cute. Her “Batty About Bats” program has helped educate thousands of children and adults alike across the state about bats by giving them an up-close look at the flying creatures.

Eufaula resident Vicky Beckham Smith worked as an environmental educator for 25 years at the Birmingham Zoo and Auburn University Outreach prior to starting A-Z Animals in 2003. While she offers programs on a wide variety of topics, including reptiles, amphibians, birds, fossils and manatees, it’s her “Batty About Bats” presentation that has become the most popular and has garnered her the nickname “The Bat Lady.”

Smith said she developed an interest in bats when she was a child and witnessed one being captured. Even then, she said, she was eager to disprove the many misconceptions people have about the creatures.

“I fell in love with bats after seeing one at age 7 when a janitor at a church had hit it with a broom and put it in a jar,” said Smith. “I was fascinated, while the adults were all saying it had rabies. I argued with them and ran to get an encyclopedia to prove them wrong. They wouldn’t listen, and the poor little bat was tossed into the trash. It was many years later when I was volunteering at the Birmingham Zoo that I got to work with bats and, in 2003, I got my first little bats to care for and use in education programs.”

Today, Smith has four fruit bats and two big brown bats in her care, but she has helped rehabilitate many more during the past two decades. While she said she’s cared for a variety of bat species, a few became favorites.

“One of my favorite little bats was severely injured by fireworks,” Smith said. “A family found it in their backyard on July 5. In order to save its life, the vet they took it to had to amputate its wing, so, of course, it couldn’t go back to the wild. ‘Sparky’ lived with me and did education programs for nine years.”

Eufaula resident Vicky Beckham Smith’s popular “Batty About Bats” educational program has garnered her the nickname “the Bat Lady.” She has helped rehabilitate a variety of bat species during the past two decades. (Courtesy of Vicky Beckham Smith)

Smith’s education program, which reaches around 5,000 people each year, details the different aspects of bats and their importance to the environment, as well as debunks many common myths. However, it’s the presentation of her live bats that piques her audience’s interest the most.

“Everyone is always so excited to meet the bats up close since they are presented in a safe way,” Smith said. “I am rabies vaccinated, and so are my bats. My Egyptian fruit bats do come out of the cage on my gloved hands for everyone to get a closer look. Many people are surprised to see how cute they are, saying that they have a dog-like face. The native bats are usually sleeping through the program, and people are often surprised how small they are when they are full-grown.”

Smith, who is a member of the Alabama Bat Working Group in addition to several other environmental groups, said she’s hopeful that attendees of her program will leave with a better understanding of bats and the important role they play in the ecosystem of the Yellowhammer State.

“We now officially have 16 species of bats in Alabama,” Smith said. “The Alabama Bat Working Group recently held a Bat Blitz in Jackson County to specifically see if we could find Eastern small-footed bats in Alabama, and we did. I was on the team that caught one — that was pretty exciting to be there to see and help document that, in fact, this bat does live in Alabama. All 16 species of Alabama bats are insect eaters, so they eat bugs that bug us, bugs that harm our farmers’ crops and our forests.”

Smith books programs about bats through schools, libraries, camps and other organizations. To find out more, visit the A-Z Animals Facebook page.

This story was previously published by This is Alabama. Want to read more good news about Alabama? Sign up for the This is Alabama newsletter here.