Bats are one of the most intelligent creatures on earth. Besides being super intelligent, they are also the only mammal species that can fly. Even though some animals like flying squirrels and gliding possums could also be considered flying mammals, this is in fact not quite true. These two species can merely glide for short distances.
Bats are divided into two groups:
- Megachiroptera or mega bats - Medium to large bats. Many of these bats feed on fruit or nectar while some eat fish and other small land animals. These bats have excellent eyesight and have big eyes.
Image source - The Rodriquez bat that falls under the Mega bats
- The other major group is Microchiroptera or micro bats. This group is smaller, use echolocation to identify their food, and they mainly live from insects and fruit.
Image source - Lesser mouse-eared bat
The wings of a bat contains the same number of bones as a human hand. In reality a bat's wings are their hands.
A very thin, strong membrane of soft, velvety skin spreads across these bones, connecting them to the bat's back and legs, like the fabric and ribs of an umbrella. The thumb clings to surfaces when the bat alights. The surface of a bat’s wings has small, sensitive bumps called Merkel cells. Each bump has a tiny hair in the center, allowing the bat to collect information about the air flowing over its wings so it can change the wing’s shape to fly more efficiently.
The myth factor
There are so many myths about bats, and many people are extremely scared of this apparent rabies carrier, bloodsucking little mouse-like creature, but there is in reality only three types out of nearly a thousand different bat-species that feeds on blood. Many people believe that a bat could get strangled in your hair and is a unclean disease carrier, but this little creature plays such an important part in the Eco-system and is helpful in the controlling of crop destroying insects.
What are the eating habits of bats?
Most bats eat insects and fruit and the three species that feeds on blood, usually feed on animal blood and can definitely NOT be considered vampires ;) although they are called vampire bats. These vampire bats make a small cut in the skin of an animal and lick the blood from the skin. This do not hurt the animal but could be annoying.
Image source - Bat pup being fed blood by a human
Bats eat nectar exactly the same way as hummingbirds. Many plant species would not survive without bats! Did you know that the hair on their bodies catches pollen and carries it to other flowers. Bats leave their cave and fly to the nearest river or stream, where they dip their lower jaw into the water while they are still flying and then take a drink of water.
What is echolocation?
Surprisingly there are also other animal that uses echolocation for navigation purposes like toothed whales and dolphins. There are also two cave dwelling bird groups called the genus and cave swift-lets that uses echolocation. Echolocation is the use of sound waves and echoes to determine where objects are. Bats use this to find their way in the dark and to find food. They send out the sound waves from their mouth or nose and when the specific sound hits and object it produces an echo.
What is the natural habitat of the bat species?
Bats can be naturally found almost in every habitat on Earth. They usually live in dark safe places. Some bats migrate to warmer climates during the winter, while others hibernate.
Why are bats active during the night?
Bats are not blind, and they have better night vision than day vision. They also can not see color. (I wonder how they found that out???) Bats sleep during the day and mostly hunt during the night when they can mainly use their echolocation skills.
Why do bats hang upside down?
Bats sleep upside down because when they are in danger they can immediately fly away as they are already in the perfect condition. A bat cannot launch its body from the ground like a bird because their wings can't produce enough lift off.
The mating ritual- Very interesting!
A mother bat can delay fertilization by storing the sperm in a reproductive tract or she can delay implantation of the egg. Bats usually give birth to one baby during the early summer, although twins and quadruplets occur in a few species. This makes them extremely vulnerable to extinction. All mothers feed their young and a baby exclusively drink mother's milk until the age of six months.
A bat gives birth while hanging upside down and must catch the baby with her wings after it is born. A mother bat locates her pup via its scent out of hundreds of other babies. The pup is born without hair and like a dog puppy the eyes are closed when it is born. A pup can learn to fly within three to six weeks after birth and amazingly the father actually helps the mommy take care of the baby.
- The human brain suppresses echoes but when a human is blind a human could actually use echolocation to visualize their environment.
- A chemical in the saliva of bats, keeps blood from clotting before the bat is done eating. This could be useful for humans and experiments are being done to see if this could help humans with blood clots.
- Bats can live between 20 - 30 years.
- Bats can fly at speeds of up to 60 mph
- Bat droppings are one of the richest fertilizers.
- The world’s largest bat is the "flying fox" and has a wingspan of up to 6 feet.
- A large group of bats flying in the sky is called a "cloud."
- The world’s smallest bat is the bumblebee bat of Thailand. It weighs less than a penny and is smaller than a thumbnail.
Fun video courtesy of YouTube - More interesting facts!
Conclusion
Bats is a very important part of the Eco-system. Bats are responsible for pollination and pollinate lots of fruit trees. The bat population controls a great number of pests, sadly many bat populations are in grave danger. Next time you see a bat, think about everything that you have read here.
Think twice before killing a bat...
References:
http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/bat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat
http://www.defenders.org/bats/bats
https://gizmodo.com/migrating-bats-are-basically-flying-weather-stations-1818586572
https://www.livescience.com/28272-bats.html
http://www.bats.org.uk/
I hope that you enjoyed my post!
