Bats

Bats in the novel move between familiar animals and signs of a world whose dangers exceed human control. They first appear as part of the Bolivian landscape, then become the force behind a disastrous expedition; later references show how fear of infection can turn them into objects of blame, while other scenes preserve their place in ordinary life.

Wildlife in the Bolivian expedition

During the expedition, bats pour out of caves at sunset along a river ravine in Bolivia. The cliffs’ dark layer appears to accord with the Chuchote legend of a great fire, while the bats make the caves an active part of the landscape rather than a mere archaeological backdrop. At this point, Jonas Lear’s party is still searching for a grave site, and the animals are a feature of the environment they are moving through.

The expedition’s account also records an attempt to catch one bat: Claudia rigs a trap baited with canned peaches. The detail is casual and practical, even playful, and stands in sharp contrast to what follows. Bats can be observed and treated as ordinary wildlife right up to the moment they become a danger the expedition cannot manage.

The attacks and the expedition’s collapse

The first attack comes after sunset, while members of the party are scattered around camp doing evening chores. Lear is upriver trying to get a GPS signal when he hears shouting and gunfire. By the time he returns, the swarm has moved downstream. Four people die, including Claudia; the account says that she tried to reach the river but did not make it. Six others are bitten or scratched and fall ill, while Tim is among the most seriously affected after trying to pull the bats away from Claudia.

A second attack follows the next night despite the soldiers’ defensive perimeter. Lear estimates that the bats number in the hundreds of thousands, a swarm so large that it blots out the stars. Three soldiers and Cole are killed. In the confusion, a grenade belt goes into a fire, killing another soldier and destroying the generator and much of the supplies. The survivors still have satellite communications and enough battery power to request evacuation, but the attacks have transformed the expedition into a struggle over whether anyone can continue.

Lear’s account makes the bats’ impact both immediate and lasting. The attacks reduce the party, destroy equipment, and deepen uncertainty about the illnesses affecting the survivors. The party has contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but without tissue analysis the cause remains unresolved in the report. Lear nevertheless says the catastrophe has clarified the stakes of the expedition, and he considers pressing on alone rather than turning back.

Fear, blame, and ordinary encounters

The novel also shows how fear surrounding bats can spread beyond an attack. After the zoo crisis and Amy’s removal from the convent, Sister Arnette lies awake recalling a day of confusion and public attention. Her memory links the zoo’s shouts and flight with the sense that events have escaped her understanding; the bats are part of the crisis as remembered, but the passage also emphasizes how uncertainty, repeated questioning, and news coverage shape the aftermath.

Later, during a public argument about the threat to the colony, Sam Chou blames Amy for the deaths and calls for her and Caleb to be expelled. The crowd takes up his demand in a rising chorus. This is not a new account of a bat attack, but it reveals how fear associated with the danger can be redirected toward people who are already vulnerable. Bats thus belong not only to the ecology of the threat but also to the chain of suspicion and collective hostility it sets in motion.

Other scenes resist reducing bats to a single meaning. At the zoo, Amy and Lacey watch a polar bear swim up to the glass, while an unseen man warns that the animal might see a child as food; the scene places animal danger inside a public setting where it is managed through barriers and spectatorship. In the expedition’s camp, Claudia’s peach-baited trap similarly reflects an effort to handle wildlife through ordinary means. Together, such moments sharpen the contrast between manageable encounters and the Bolivian swarms that overwhelm human defenses.