What are bats?

Mammals. Yes, that is true. They have fur, they give birth and in their young age they are fed with milk. The only mammal capable of flight. Bats have over 1400 species. Making up around 20% of the world's mammal population. Bats live almost everywhere on earth, except the Arctic and Antarctica.

Microbats & Megabats

1400 species and all of them can be in different size. From very small, tiny (1 inch long) to the giant golden-crowned flying fox of over 6 feet. They are mainly divided into two categories. Microbats, they eat mostly insects and megabats mostly fruits. We have also bats that can eat small mammals, fish and birds. Vampire bats also exist (South America) it is not a legend but they feed on the blood of cattle or birds.

  • Small in size
  • Huge ears relative to the body
  • Uses echolocation to find food
  • Feeds on insects
  • Large in size
  • Small ears relative to the body
  • Uses sight to find food
  • Feeds on fruit, not humans!

Top Myths

  • Bats suck human blood -

    Out of 1400 species we will find only 3 that are vampire bats. They live in Latin America and they definitely prefer cattle or bird blood rathen than human blood.

  • Bats are blind -

    No, they are not. Their eyesight is very limited because of small size of eyes but they are not blind.

  • They are looking for an occasion to fly into your hair -

    If they do so, they are just frightened. Mostly they use echolocation to avoid such a collision with you.

  • Rabies -

    The World Health Organization (WHO) reports 99% of all deaths from rabies comes from dog bites. Rabies is a common concern when encountering animals in the wilderness, but the truth is that less than 1 percent of bats are rabid.

Top facts

  • Night live -

    Most bats are nocturnal. They seek for their food at night. During the day they need to be in a safe place like tree, cave or rock crevices to rest and sleep.

  • They are big pollinators -

    Like bees, they are pollinators. pollinating over 500 tropical plants that can be used for medicine or food. If bats go extinct, we can forget about eating mangoes, avocados, cocos or bananas.

  • Disease for bats is one of the biggest nightmare -

    Whise Nose Syndrome (WNS), the deadly disease that have already killed milions of bats.

  • Bats are clean -

    Like cats, bats clean themselves. They spend a lot of time cleaning themselves so they are far from being dirty. It helps to keep sleek fur and control parasites.

Trivia

  • International Bat Appreciation Day - April 17th.

  • Bats wrap themselves in their wings to keep body heat.

  • The oldest bat known is approximately 41 years old.

  • During hibernation they can survive in freezing temparatures, even after being en-cased in ice.

  • The world's largest bat is the "flying fox". He lives on inslands in the South Pacific.

  • The world's smallest bat is the bumblebee bat in Thailand. This bat has maximum length of 33mm and 2g in mass. Less than a penny.

  • Bats are loving mothers. Adult bat will care for orphans as their own.

  • Single bat can eat up to 1200 mosquitos in a night.

Why do we need bats?

Except disease, climate change and wind turbines are the biggest bats killers. Unfortunately, populations of the bats is declining rapidly. They are pollinators and they love eating insects. Without bats our ecosystem will collapse. Insect population will explode and many fruits will stop to exist. They are one of the most important animals on the planet and this is very important to remember. Humanity cannot afford to let them go extinct.