Nature strikes back

Have you ever wondered about the consequences of some countries doing rapid deforestation to create large tracts of farmland? In some places in South America they already know - especially if there's also a disappearance of large numbers of cattle (to market, to market)? You end up with vampire bats ... lots of vampire bats. Weren't expecting that were you? Or maybe you were.
I was reading an article recently about vampire bats killing at least 23 people in some of Brazil's remote Amazon regions. The victims died of rabies - as borne by the bats.
The BBC Report (and even I thought it was going to be from The National Enquirer or at least a trashy tabloid)) told how health authorities were trying to cope after 23 deaths in the region in the last two months. While it's not the first attack, it's unusually serious and has been caused, some experts say, by deforestation.
Health authorities say they have treated more than 1,300 people for rabies after being attacked by vampire bats, almost always at night in their houses.
As soon as I read this I thought of the "open window" angle - and that a “real life" vampire or perhaps that should be "fiction" vampire needs to be invited in, and an open window can be seen as that invitation. Which only goes to show that I am not thinking as a third-world person - especially as these poor people are trying to fill gaps in the walls of their huts with banana leaves to stop the bats getting in.
So why is it happening? Deforestation means the bats' natural habitat is destroyed. But rather than dying out, the bats' numbers may have increased with the appearance of an abundant food supply - the cattle. The BBC report stated that mass attacks on humans have occurred in other cattle regions in Latin America when the cattle are suddenly removed.