Creatures of the night
Mammals with wings
Many people are afraid of bats. Perhaps it's because they come out at night. Perhaps it's because of those stories about vampire bats. But actually bats are amazing creatures. Yes, it's true - there is a kind of bat that lives on blood. But they rarely feed on humans - and a meal for them is only about two tablespoons of blood. About 70 per cent of bats eat insects. Almost all the rest eat fruit.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly. There are more than 1,100 species of them. Also, there are more species of bats than any other mammal - about 20 per cent of mammals are bats. The smallest bats can be just a few centimetres. The biggest, flying foxes, can have wingspans of up to 1.5 metres.
Megas and micros
Bats are either megas or micros. Mega stands for big and micro for small. Most megabats are bigger than microbats - they also tend to eat fruit. But the important difference is something special that microbats can do.
Scientists have a special word for this. It is echolocation - 'echo' and 'location'. Microbats make sounds - high-pitched chirps that humans cannot hear. And then they listen for the sound to echo back. This gives them an idea of their landscape. They can fly around caves in the dark without bumping into anything.
Fun facts
Bats are very clean animals. Like cats, they spend a lot of time cleaning themselves.
Bats' faces produce an oil. They spread this oil onto their wings. This stops their leathery wings from drying out.
Bats spend most of their time in roosts. This could mean hanging from the roof of a cave, from trees or even the roofs of buildings. They gather in big groups and put all the babies together -sometimes thousands of them. The biggest roost ever seen was in Mexico in the 1960s. There were about 50 million bats in a cave. That's a record for mammals.
now do this
1 About ...of mammals are bats.
a. 20 per cent
b. 70 per cent
c. 50 per cent
2 There are about ... species of bats.
a. 110
b. 1,000
c. 1,100
3 ...use echolocation.
a. Megabats
b. Microbats
c. All bats
Answers:
May 10
1. a, 2. c, 3. a
