Inaugural Lectures

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Inaugural Lectures (Zoology)

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The World of Bats
(Obafemi Awolowo University Press, 1984-05-15) Okon, Eyo.E
I chose the topic: "The World of Bats" for my Inaugural Lecture for two principal reasons. First, with so much mystery and superstition surrounding bats generally, and with their wide variety of life patterns, coupled with the fact that with some two thousand species or so, bats are the second most numerous mammals (the first being the rodents), the bats are truly a world unto themselves. Secondly, my name is so much linked with bats that it appears that our two names could soon become synonymous. Indeed, when I was promoted professor a couple of years ago, some of the goodwill messages I received contained more compliments to the bats than to me. For example, one of the telegrams I received on that occasion said: "Congratulations to the Bats". I was left out! So, this public lecture affords me a golden opportunity to show that I am in fact the one who has been working on bats, and not the ba ts on me! I also in tend, during the course of this lecture to show that all I do and know about in Zoology is not just bats.