In this era, the images that pop up in the minds of many when they hear ‘bats’ are the ones that portray troubles and vices. Not always but usually, that is the case. However, the innocent creatures have hardly done anything to earn this notorious reputation. In fact, it has been humans who have tarnished their prestige throughout the centuries by associating them with evil myths and fictional stories such as the Dracula and the Batman.
9 Facts About Bats: The Wrongly Infamous Creatures
In reality, bats are mammals that belong to the order Chiroptera. The word ‘Chiroptera’ derives from an English word ‘chiro-,’ which indicates ‘hands’ when combined with some other word, and the Greek word ‘pteron,’ which means ‘wing.’ By the combination, Chiroptera means winged hands and it is perfect to describe bats.
Here are some facts about the Bats, vile creatures that hardly pose any harm.
1. Bats are the only flying mammals
While there are flying squirrels and many other mammals who can glide certain distances, bats are the only mammals with a genuine and sustainable ability of flight. Some bats even fly from the north to south to save themselves from the freezing winters.
The design of their webbed wings between their fingers is what classifies them as the only flying mammals. Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread-out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium.
2. Bats have around 1,240 different species
Bats form the second largest order of mammals, rodents topping the list, with over 1200 distinct species. They represent about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide and are spread across the whole globe except Antarctica.
3. Not all bats drink blood
A common belief is that all kinds of bat rely on blood. However, 70% of the species feed off from bugs and insects, while the other 30% consumes various sorts of fruits. There are only three species, called ‘vampire bats,’ which devour blood of different animals. They are found in Central and South America only and avoid humans.
4. Bats are not blind (source)
Although a bat’s vision is not as sharp as other nocturnal animals, none of the bats are blind and some can observe three times better than humans. Moreover, bats can hear sounds of frequencies between 20 kHz and 200 kHz. They use echolocation to pinpoint the location of the insects that they prey on and to avoid predators. Through echolocation, they can sense objects as insignificant as a strand of human hair.
Furthermore, the megabats can see clearly without echolocation and see colors like humans.
5. Bats are important seed dispersers
Fruit bats or megabats thrive on various sorts of fruit. Some of these fruit seeds even need to pass through the digestive system of a bat for the seed to activate and grow as a new plant. Moreover, fruit bats can disperse seeds as far as hundreds of kilometers and are, therefore, solid players in the reforestation of rainforests.
6. Vampire bats lead to improved blood flow
Vampire bats carry an anticoagulant in their saliva, which prevents the clogging of blood. It enables a vampire bat to lap the blood it needs before the wound from its bite is sealed from clogging blood. Scientists replicate the enzymes found in a vampire bat’s saliva to treat cardiac patients and prevent blood from clogging inside bodies that cause heart attacks and strokes.
7. Bats are important bug regulators
A single bat can eat up to 600 bugs in an hour. It is the equivalent of a person eating twenty pizzas in one night. A small colony of bats can eat tons of insects and bugs in a year. This way, they naturally regulate the growth of insects and bugs that are otherwise harmful to human and plant life. This helps governments and farmers save billions of dollars a year on pharmaceuticals for humans and plants.
8. Bat dung is rich in minerals
Bat dung or ‘guano’ is one of the richest fertilizers. The production and export of guano used to be a big business in Texas once, and farmers use bat dung as a fertilizer to this day. This is another reason bats can potentially reform rainforests since their droppings are so strong that they provide potential food for plants to grow.
9. Bat mothers usually produce one pup per year
Bats only have one breeding season in spring and in that season, mothers are usually able to produce only one litter. Although many animals similar to their size produce quadruplets or more, bats usually produce only one pup in a litter.