A "Flying Rodent" No More

Bats are more closely related to humans and other primates than they are to rodents.

 Picture from Discovery Kids

While they might look like a rodent, several evolution studies indicate that the Old World fruit bats and flying foxes may actually be descended from early primates such as lemurs. 

Baby Bats

A baby bat will have plenty of siblings in it's life, but none the same age.  

 

Female bats generally only give birth to just one pup a year.  Some belief this is because of the mother's need to fly to feed while pregnant.   Female bats nurse their young until they are nearly adult size, because a young bat cannot forage on its own until its wings are fully developed.  Infant mortality is high, (if a baby bat looses a grip on its mother or roost, it will fall and die) but bats that reach maturity can live 30 years or more.

Tumblr Tuesday - Halloween Animals

We've been sharing a lot of spooky (and some silly) Halloween-themed photos on our Tumblr page, and decided it was time to share them with our blog readers too!

Beastly Bats

We think bats have gotten a bit of a bad reputation; most people think they’re scary. Maybe it’s their association with vampires and biting. Maybe it’s the thought that one could easily fly at you and get stuck in your hair. Whatever the reason, it seems unfair, as most bats are content to just fly at night and eat bugs.

Come on, do they look that scary?

There are, however, some bats that do deserve the reputation of scary and creepy. Bats we hope to NEVER come into contact with. We've dug up some examples of the most terrifying, chilling, can't-believe-they're-real bat species. Here are a few of the scariest...

Big-Eared Bat

The giant ears on the big-eared bat almost makes it seem comical, until it comes at you with a wingspan that's the length of your forearm.

Leaf-Nosed Bat

What is going on with this bat's nose? It looks like it exploded! It's a small consolation that the nose of the leaf-nosed bat helps it focus its echo-location calls... a very small consolation.

Bulldog Bat

What is this fearsome things with whiskers? It's the bulldog bat. What makes this species stand out is that it's not content eating insects. Oh no. The bulldog bat can skim water and catch small fish! That's enough to make us never want to go night swimming again.

Flying Fox

This bat gets extra terror points for its size alone. Its body is about as big as a tissue box and its wingspan can get up to almost five feet long! We'll let that sink in for a moment... The flying fox has wings that are the size of a person! If Dracula really does turn into a bat, we bet he's one of these.

A few more scary bat facts:
- They are eating machines that can consume almost 50% of their body weight.
- They are almost everyone. Bats are in every non-extreme ecosystem in every part of the world.
- Bat colonies are large, and in the biggest colonies can include tens of millions of bats.

The Vampire Bat

Perhaps no other animal is more closely associated with Halloween than the vampire bat. Whereas most bats feed on fruit or flying insects, vampire bats feed almost exclusively on blood; of the three living species, only the common vampire bat feeds on the blood of mammals, the others only target birds.

Common vampire bats can be found throughout most of South and Central America and Mexico. At less than four inches long and weighing only two ounces, vampire bats aren’t considered scary so much as they are regarded as pests by ranchers, as they frequently target livestock animals.

Vampire bats usually live in colonies of 100 to 1000 individuals. They spend their days sleeping and only leave to feed once total darkness has set in. Though they will target wild mammals and even humans on rare occasions, common vampire bats prefer to feed on domestic horses and cattle.

Vampire bats have good eyesight, but primarily use their hearing and sense of smell to track down prey. Once a host has been found, the bat will either land on it or land near it, choosing to either scramble up the victim or feed on it from the ground. The bat will then use the heat sensors in its nose to locate blood vessels close to the skin’s surface. Once a suitable spot has been found (usually near the rump or neck), the bat will use its razor sharp incisors to make a small wound and lap up blood until it has nearly doubled its weight. Too heavy to fly after its meal, the vampire bat (which is quite agile on the ground) will find a sheltered spot to rest and digest until it can fly again.

Despite its gluttonous feeding habits, the tiny vampire bat never drinks enough blood to endanger a large mammal. In fact, it is common for them to return to the same host to feed every night, even defending it from other hungry vampire bats.

How Bats Save You Money

The next time you buy bread, fruits or vegetables at the grocery store, take a moment and thank a bat. While they may not be the cutest creatures in the world, without these flying mammals you would likely be spending a lot more money on food.

In an article published by the Science journal this past spring, biologists reported that bats may save us up to 53 billion dollars per year in agricultural pest control. 70% of all bat species are insectivores, and even small brown bats no larger than a human thumb can eat up to eight grams of insects per night, drastically reducing the amount of pesticides we need to use on crops. Our hungry bat friends help the forest too. By reducing insect populations, trees and plants are less prone to dying from disease.

Unfortunately, diseases like white nose syndrome and the popularity of wind turbine power stations in the Great Plains are having a negative effect on bat populations. Conservationists are now working on ways to help protect and preserve these beneficial animals, which have declined up to 70% in some states in recent years.

Hunting in the Dark

Contrary to the saying “blind as a bat,” bats are not actually blind. It is true, however, that they don’t always use their eyes to look for prey; instead, they use something called echolocation. They make a series of high-frequency sounds, which echo back, allowing the bat to locate its prey and avoid obstacles — even ones as thin as a hair — during the hunt. The reason they developed this sense is because they’re nocturnal animals, so they can find food in even the darkest places.

Bonus bat fact: Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly, and they can live more than 30 years!