SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Deep in the shuttered gold mines that defined California’s beginnings there live colonies of golden-hued mammals that could come to define the state’s future: the once-humble Pallid bat.

Chiroptera enthusiasts have been working to get a state bat on the books since at least 2017, but the movement kicked into high gear this year when a 12-year-old from Los Angeles began a well-connected lobbying campaign to elevate the Pallid bat to icon status.

Over half of North America’s 154 bat species are at risk of population decline in the next 15 years, and yet the Pallid bat — which eats scorpions and drinks cactus water — is surviving. It’s on the state’s list of mammals to watch, but is not endangered or threatened.

Still, middle-schooler Naomi D’Alessio wants to make sure the flying mammals are protected for years to come. So she began lobbying state Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City) to author the bat bill, CA SB732 (23R), this year after recording bat calls in her backyard. Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) — whose longtime partner is D’Alessio’s cousin — declined to carry the legislation because she had too many other proposals in the works, but she’ll be shepherding it through the Assembly. ....