Bat

Bats are the second largest order of mammals (after the rodents), representing about one fifth of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders.

There are two main groups of bats: megabats, which eat fruit, and microbats, which mainly eat insects.

BEHAVIOR

Bats are nocturnal, and those native to temperate countries hibernate in winter.

Bats can hang upside down without getting dizzy because they don't have enough mass for gravity to mess up their circulatory systems.

Bats groom themselves for an hour a day, rubbing their wings with oil from glands on their faces

Bats like to eat moths, so tiger moths produce ultrasonic clicking sounds that jam a bat's sonar.

Bats can eat up to 1,200 mosquitos an hour and may eat 3,000 insects (their body weight) nightly.

Bats in the US eat so many insects that they save farmers an estimated $22.9 billion every year on pesticides.

Without bats there would be no tequila. It’s made from the agave plant, which is pollinated by bats.

Vampire bats need two tablespoons of blood a day.

Bats are one of just a few animals, besides humans, dolphins and monkeys, that communicate directly to other individuals of their species.

Bats alter their calls to specifically address other individuals, instead of just making broad communication sounds. 

The bulldog bat squeaks at 137dB. It is about 30dB louder than a rock music concert.

ANATOMY

Bats are the only mammal that can fly.

Common fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) flying

Brazilian free-tailed bats reach speeds of up to 100 miles an hour in little bursts—faster than any other bird or bat previously recorded.

The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no species of bat (apart from the vampire bat) can walk or run.

Many microbats have poor sight and orientation and hunt their prey principally by echolocation. They have relatively large ears and many have nose-leaves, fleshy appendages around the nose and mouth, that probably help in sending or receiving the signals, which are squeaks pitched so high as to be inaudible to the human ear.

Larger bats have good eyesight and only use echolocation at night because it's too dark to see. In fact, some bigger bats can see three times better than humans.

RECORDS

Bats produce the largest offspring relative to their size of any animal. A pipistrelle bat weighing just 8 gram (0.28 oz)may give birth to a 2 gram (0.07 oz) baby, a quarter of its bodyweight.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing roughly two skittles.

The largest bat is the giant golden-crowned flying fox which has a wingspan of up to 5ft 7in (170 cms).

FUN BAT FACTS

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

According to scientists, vampire bat saliva is the best known medicine for keeping blood from clotting.

The flying fox is not a fox – it is a bat.

Bats are implicated in the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China, since they serve as natural hosts for coronaviruses, several from a single cave in Yunnan, one of which developed into the SARS virus.

Bats do good work, they keep pests away and they’re also pollinators, which is why they get their own day. April 17th is National Bat Appreciation Day.

The terms “bats” and “batty”, to mean crazy, were first heard in the early 20th century. They came from the slightly earlier “bats in the belfry”, which was first heard in 1880s America

One of Johann Strauss II's most famous works was the opera Die Fledermaus, which means “the bat”.

Sources Daily Express, Greatfacts.com, Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.