Bats

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Bats are awesome animals. They are very beneficial to the environment. Check out this page and some other pages that I have listed at the bottom to find out more about bats. I got this information from Bat Conservation International. Check out this great site and learn about bats and help save them!

This is Squeaky the bat. My friend Sybill is holding him. (She's a bat biologist).

FACTS ABOUT BATS

Nearly 1,000 kinds of bats account for almost a quarter of all mammal species, and most are beneficial.

A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in just one hour.

A 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-tails from Bracken Cave, Texas, eat approximately 200 tons of insects nightly.

Tropical bats are key elements in rain forest ecosystems, which rely on them to pollinate flowers and disperse seeds for countless trees and shrubs.

In the wild, important agricultural plants, from bananas, breadfruit, and mangoes to cashews, dates and figs, rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.

Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3,000th of normal without bat pollinators.

Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti, including the famous organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona.

Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing gasohol and antibiotics.

An anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, bats are not blind, do not become entangled in human hair, and seldom transmit desease to other animals or humans.

All mammals can contract rabies, however, fewer than one-half of one percent of bats do, and these typically bite only in self-defense. Bats pose little threat if people simply do not handle them.

Bats are excepionlly vulnerable to extinction, in part because they are the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size. Most produce only one young a year.

More than half of American bat species are in severe decline or are already listed as endangered. Losses are are occurring at alarming rates worldwide.

Loss of bats increases demand for chemical pesticides, can jeopardize whole ecosystems of other animal and plant species, and can harm human economics.

BAT TRIVIA

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
Giant flying foxes that live in Indinesia have wingspans of six feet.
The common little brown bat of North America is the world's longest-lived mammal for its size, with life spans sometimes exceeding 34 years.
Mexican free-tailed bats 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.
The pallid bat of western North America is immune to the stings of scorpions and even the seven-inch centipedes upon which it feeds.
Fishing bats have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect a minniow'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 from more than six feet away.
Frog-eating bats distinguish between edible and poisonous frogs by listening to the male frogs' mating calls. The frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult-to-locate calls.
Red bats, which live in tree foliage throughout most of North America, can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees F. during winter hibernation.
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 the make "tents" that protect its small colonies from jungle rains.
Vampire bats adopt orphans and have been kown to risk their lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates.
Male epauleted bats have pouches in their shoulders that contain large, showy patches of white fur, which they flash during courtship to attract mates.
Mother Mexican free-tailed bats find and nurse their own young, even in huge colonies where many millions of babies cluster up to 500 per square foot.

Did you know, that just by learning about bats, you are helping save them? Teach the information that is on this website to others, that is another step in saving bats.

To learn more about bats and how you can save them, join Bat Conservation International. There you can join a club to help save bats. I did, it is really cool! Check it out!