October 22, 2021
Our Buddies: Bats |
A couple of months ago we celebrated the birds and the bees, the pollinators that everyone thinks about during the spring and summer seasons, but did you know that bats are great pollinators too? In fact, they are the reason we have bananas, avocados and mangoes. This Musing is the first of a special two-part series exploring bats and a few of the great things they do, (even though they tend to get a bad rap). |
Batty Basics -
There are over 1400 species of bats. They live in all but the most extreme environmental conditions and can be found on all the continents except Antarctica.
- Bats are the only flying mammal. Some bat species can fly over 100 miles an hour.
- They have their very own taxonomic order, Chiroptera, which means "hand-wing." Imagine your hand open wide with the skin stretched thin and extending to your fingertips.
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Bat Facts -
Bats use echolocation and their calls are out of the range of human hearing. There are however a few exceptions. One is the Mexican Free-tailed bat. Listen to this short media clip to hear two of them trying to catch the same insect.
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Each night, bats can eat their body weight in insects, numbering in the thousands!
- Bat guano (scat) sparkles! Because bats eat so many insects with exoskeletons which are made of shiny chitin, the guano of some species, especially Townsend's Big-eared Bats, can be particularly reflective.
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Threats to Bats - Bats natural predator's are owls, hawks and snakes all of which will eat them but their biggest threat is disease.
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In North America, a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome has claimed the lives of more than 6 million bats since it was first documented in 2006.
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Human activity, including disruption during hibernation is also detrimental to the bat population. Bats are disturbed by a wide range of noises humans cannot hear such as the shuffling of feet or even whispering.
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