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| Gambian Epauletted Bat |
| ©Merlin D. Tuttle, |
| Bat Conservation International |
A single little brown bat (myotis) can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in a single hour, and is one of the world's longest-lived mammals for its size, with life spans of almost 40 years. Bats are more closely related to humans than they are to rodents. Several studies indicate that the Old World fruit bats and flying foxes may actually be descended from early primates. There are over 1000 known species of bats, just about a fourth of all mammal species. Most of these bats would fit in the palm of your hand. Most bats give birth to only a single pup each year, making them very vulnerable to extinction. They are the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size. The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand which weighs about as much as a dime. Giant flying foxes that live in Indonesia have wingspans of nearly six feet. Bats are very clean animals, and groom themselves almost constantly (when not eating or sleeping) to keep their fur clean. The pallid bat of western North America is immune to the stings of the scorpions and centipedes upon which it feeds. A single colony of 150 big brown bats can protect local farmers from up to 33 million or more rootworms each summer. The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave in Texas, eat 250 tons of insects every night. They sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or to catch tailwinds that carry them over long distances, at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.
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| Indian Flying Fox |
| ©Merlin D. Tuttle, |
| Bat Conservation International |
These Mexican free-tailed bat mothers can find and nurse their own young, even in huge colonies where many millions of pups cluster at up to 500 per square foot. The youngsters can be as curious and playful as many other animal babies. A nursing little brown bat mother can eat more than her body weight nightly (up to 4,500 insects). Many important agricultural plants, like bananas, bread-fruit, mangoes, cashews, dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal. Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3000th of normal without bat pollinators, such as the Mexican long-tongued bat. Contrary to popular misconceptions, most bats have very good eyesight, have excellent echolocation so they do not become entangled in human hair, and seldom transmit disease to other animals or humans. Fishing bats have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair protruding only two millimeters above a pond's surface. African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet. Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti, including the famous organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona. |
| Baby Common Vampire Bat |
| ©Susan M. Barnard, |
| Basically Bats Wildlife Conservation |
Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing gasohol and antibiotics. Vampire bats adopt orphans, and are one of the few mammals known to risk their own lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates. An anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients and stroke victims. All mammals can contract rabies; however, even the less than half of 1% of bats that do, normally bite only in self-defense and pose little threat to people who do not handle them. Nearly 40% of American bat species are in severe decline or already listed as endangered or threatened. Losses are occurring at alarming rates worldwide. Providing bat houses can help build the populations of many valuable bat species that eat many crop-damaging insects, such as cucumber and June beetles, stink bugs, leafhoppers and corn worm moths. Bat houses furnish places for bats to roost, hibernate and raise young, in addition to the dwindling number of natural sites available to them.Red bats, which live in tree foliage throughout most of North America, can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees during winter hibernation. |
| Honduran White Bats |
| ©Merlin D. Tuttle, |
| Bat Conservation International |
Little brown bats can reduce their heart rate to 20 beats per minute and can stop breathing altogether for 48 minutes at a time while hibernating. They may hibernate for more than seven months if left undisturbed, but can starve if they are awakened too many times during the winter, which causes them to run out of energy reserves before spring. Tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders. The Honduran white bat is snow white with a yellow nose and ears. It cuts large leaves to make "tents" that protect its small colonies from jungle rains, one of 15 other species known to make tents. Frog eating bats identify edible from poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs. Frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult-to-locate calls. Moths are also known to take evasive action when they hear the echolocation calls of bats, sometimes plummeting to the ground in an attempt to escape. Male Gambian epauletted bats of Africa have pouches in their shoulders that contain large, showy patches of white fur, which they flash during courtship to attract mates. The Chapin's free-tailed bats have big tufts of white fur on top of their heads, which they fluff up during courtship. Two famous bats from literature are Stellaluna, the young fruit bat from the enchanting children's book by Janell Cannon, and Sunshine, the friendly little bat whose rescue was described in the book "The Bat In My Pocket", by Amanda Lollar of Bat World.
