Have you ever pretended to be a ferocious tiger, a cunning fox or a flying eagle? So why not, for a few minutes, imagine yourself as a bat?
“A heartbeat?” you scream Who would want to be a bat? They are ugly, creepy, scary and suck people’s blood. No, thanks. I’ll skip my life as one of those, if you don’t mind.”
That’s understandable, but don’t close your mind to the idea until you hear a little more about them. They really are among the most interesting creatures alive.
Did you know that bats are not birds? They, like humans, are mammals. Baby bats feed on milk from their mothers’ breasts and are already about three-quarters of their adult size at birth.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly. If you were a bat, you could fly more than 2 miles high.
A bat’s legs are so strong that it can hold its weight upside down all day. Wouldn’t it be fun to hang upside down from the light above your bed and surprise your parents when they come to say good night?
There are more than 1,000 different types of bats in the world. You can choose to be a fruit-eating macrobat, with a 6-foot wingspan, or a tiny Bumblebee microbat, weighing less than a penny.
Microbats in North America weigh only a few ounces and mostly live on insects. A small microbat can eat 600 insects per hour. “Yuck”, you say? Well, since we’re just pretending, maybe some juicy mosquito protein for dinner wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Once you start chewing on those pesky bugs, the world will surely be a better place.
Bats sometimes catch insects with their mouths, but often they use their wings to trap insects in a membrane or piece of skin between their legs, which can be used as a storage bag. Later, they put their heads in the bag to gobble up their dinner. (The membrane is also used to trap baby bats when they hatch.)
Have you ever wondered how bats find all those insects they eat? Their eyes are pretty weak compared to other mammals and most birds, but bats have a secret weapon called echolocation. This is a type of sonar system that bats use to find food and avoid bumping into things.
Most bats make a high-pitched sound while in flight. The sound, when it hits an object in front of the bat, echoes and tells the bat how big the object is and how far away it is. Some insects hear the sound and move away, but most are not fast enough.
In addition to those that eat fruit and those that eat insects, there are bats that eat fish, frogs, and even blood. Those that live on blood are called Vampire Bats. but don’t worry about them. They live in South America and they don’t like human blood very much. Their favorite diet is the blood of cattle, so they can be quite a nuisance to farmers.
Many people think that bats are evil creatures, but this is far from the truth. Look at some of the good things they do.
* Bats eat hundreds of tons of insects every night, saving us the trouble and expense of spraying dangerous pesticides.
* Bats carry seeds and pollen to renew the trees and plants of the rainforest.
* Bananas, avocados, vanilla and peaches are pollinated by bats.
* Bat droppings (guano), found in caves, provide an important ingredient in fertilizers. Many workers earn their living collecting guano.
* In Arizona, bats are the primary pollinators of giant cacti. If the bats disappeared, so would these magnificent plants.
* The study of heartbeats helped our government develop radar and sonar.
* Even vampire bats aren’t all bad. His saliva is being studied to prevent the blood of heart patients from clotting.
Bats, like most animals, have some natural enemies, but their greatest danger comes from humans. Pesticides, used by humans, kill millions of bats every year. Most people, when they discover a bat, try to kill or scare it away. Cave explorers sometimes scare beats; if the bats can’t find another place quickly, their young can freeze to death. Bats that let you get too close may be sick, so never touch one you find on the ground.
Scientists are trying to protect the remaining bats by teaching people more about them. You can help by telling others about the good things bats do. Ask them not to disturb the resting bats.
Now that you know more about bats, don’t you think being one, at least in your imagination, for a short while, could be fun?
For more information on bats or how to get plans to build your own bat house, write to: Bat Conservation International, PO BOX 162603, AUSTIN, TX 78716.
