Where did the bat come from. Little known facts about bats. Spectacled flying fox

A bat with a rodent has only an external resemblance. The same small, nimble, with a similar muzzle. Due to the structural features of the forelimbs, the animal is classified as a chiroptera.

It is interesting. The bat is the only mammal that can fly like a bird. The same flying squirrel only plans. The heroine of the story completely controls the flight, continuing it for the necessary time and turning in the right directions.

Wings bat- modified, elongated fingers connected by a membrane. Spreading them, the animal flies. There are many types of skilled nocturnal predators in the world. Moreover, not only mice, but also flying dogs, foxes, bats, earflaps, leaf bats, horseshoe bats and even vampires. By the way, from the name you can understand what bats eat. For example, leaf-bearers are vegetarians, preferring mostly nuts. Vampires (there are only three of them) - the fresh blood of large animals and occasionally humans. The overwhelming majority are true predators.

As is clear from the description, a bat is not a rodent. The way of eating is different, as well as the way of life, which made it possible to attribute sweet creature to a separate group. Let's get to know the flying predator closer.

Bat life

Dominant quantity bats prefer to eat insects, but there are others. Leaf-nosed vegans love nuts, giant vespers specialize in lizards and frogs, and some won't mind fish. Let's deal with those who drink blood. Are there really little black vampires in nature, or are they fairy tales?

It is interesting. In America, there are only three types of bats that eat blood and flesh. But to say that they suck is wrong. Rather, they bite and lick the protruding liquid, without giving up pieces of meat. Since bats are secretive animals that live in dark places and are active at night, people have long associated them with something evil, otherworldly. Hence the appearance of legends about vampires - the dead, who easily turn into animals. In fact, belief only remotely reflects reality.

Bats appear in the house by chance, preferring to live far from humans. Sometimes they can be found in attics, but only if the room is uninhabited. Preferred locations are abandoned buildings, hollow trees, cave formations, and similar hiding places. During the day, the animals sleep, catching their paws on a horizontal surface and hanging upside down, and at night they go out to hunt. The flight of a bat is smooth, almost inaudible and imperceptible to insects. Why?

The reason for this is the ability of the animal to echolocation. Bats navigate in flight not by sight or even by smell. They are able to pick up the waves emanating from an object that stands in the way. To do this, the animal needs to constantly scream so that the echo is reflected from the barrier. Fortunately, a person does not hear the emitted ultrasounds, otherwise the flight of a bat would turn into unbearable torture for our ears. This squeak is so piercing and painful.

Here are a few more amazing facts about the heroes of today's story:

Now you know what bats eat, how they live, navigate in flight with the help of echolocation and are considered quite useful human helpers. That is why you should not be afraid of interesting predators at all, and even more so to drive them away from the site.

And yet, what to do if a bat flew into an apartment? After all, frightened, she can accidentally bite a person, and this is dangerous. Let's find out how to drive away a lost animal.

Chasing away an uninvited guest

If a bat flew into the house, don't panic. Believe me, this happened quite by accident, and the animal is scared no less than you. The easiest thing is to catch. Moreover, you will have to act quickly, because the guest knows how to navigate well in space even in an unfamiliar place. Experts recommend using some kind of dense fabric. The animal is carefully knocked down and wrapped in a cloth, and then released into the street. Open the window - perhaps the guest will fly out on his own, without your help. In no case do not catch with your bare hands and do not twitch - the bat can get scared and bite. If the trouble still happened, you will definitely have to go to the doctor.

Bats do not live in houses, preferring to hide from humans, so you can be happy with such a visit: a rather rare occurrence. If a bat appeared in the apartment, you cannot kill it. There is a sign among the people that in this case you will simply shorten your own life. In China, they say that such a visit promises big money.

Looking at a photo of a bat, many notice its resemblance to the rodent of the same name. And color, and size, and even the shape of the muzzle, and resourcefulness, briskness. In fact, the animals are different. It doesn’t matter if the bat is small or large in front of you, the main thing is to always remember that it is an excellent helper and friend of any gardener and gardener, which means you don’t need to destroy it.

Bat- this is an animal that is a representative of the class of mammals, the order of bats, the suborder of bats.

There are about 900 species of these winged animals in the world. Bats are very common on our planet and this the only mammals that can fly.

Animals are usually small. Of all the representatives of the suborder, the pig-nosed bat is the smallest. Its total weight 2 grams, the length of her body varies 2.8 to 3.4 cm, the wingspan reaches 16 cm. This animal is considered one of the smallest in the world. There are also quite large representatives of the species, for example, the giant False Vampire, which has a body weight of about 150–200 grams, wingspan up to 73–75 cm and wing width 14-17 cm.

The bodies of all bats are covered with short and soft hair. Its color can be different - from white to dark gray, brown and brown. Some animals even have a red or reddish color. And also, in nature, there are individuals who do not have wool at all. There are two known species of such animals that live in South-East Asia and in the Philippines.

The eyesight of these animals is poorly developed, they are completely unable to distinguish colors. But this does not mean that bats are blind, some of them can see quite well. For example, the Californian Leafnoss, in the right light, can track prey with its eyes.

All representatives of this species have a unique hearing; in them it is the leading sense organ. Some animals have very large ears almost the same size as the body. Many bats have a skin-cartilaginous outgrowth at the base of their ears, it is rather narrow and small, and is designed to amplify and better perceive sound. Thanks to such ears, animals have such a well-developed hearing that they are able to hear the sounds of insects against the backdrop of strong water noise.

The structure of the skull and the number of teeth different types suborder may vary depending on the nutrition of animals. They, like all mammals, have a dental system that includes: incisors, canines and molars. For example, if an animal feeds on the nectar of flowers, then its front part of the skull will have an elongated shape to accommodate long tongue to which he feeds.

Individuals that eat large insects have longer fangs and larger teeth than those that eat small, soft-shelled insects. Usually such bats can have 38 small teeth, and vampires have only 20, because in most cases they need only sharp fangs to make a wound on the victim's body. The teeth of animals that prefer to eat fruits are specially adapted for thorough crushing of fruits.

Bat wings are very unique in their design. The forelimbs of the animals function perfectly, thanks to the peculiar structure of the carpal bones. Their thumbs have turned into bones, and the bones of the other four fingers have lengthened, which is very convenient for changing the shape of the wing.

The bones in the wings are connected to each other using a thin and light membrane. It can be easily damaged, but it is the fastest healing tissue that a mammal can have. It recovers 10 times faster than in humans. The membrane is covered with many small hairs, at the base of which are sensory cells that inform the bat about air currents during flight, so that the animal can calculate when to speed up or slow down the flight.

The body of the animal consists of a dense layer of muscles that allow them to sharply change direction during the flight, soar into the air or rush down. All this bats can do absolutely without looking. For orientation during night flights, animals emit a high-frequency squeak that echoes back to them. Such echolocation allows bats to fly around any obstacles, not collide with them, as well as find prey and fly after it at speeds up to 60 km per hour.

The way of life of bats

Various species of these animals are widely distributed throughout the world, with the exception of Antarctica, the Arctic and some oceanic islands.

A large number of bats inhabit tropical and subtropical countries.

Members of the order Chiroptera are nocturnal animals. During the day, they hide in their shelters, these can be caves, crevices in the rocks, various buildings, cozy places underground, where they hang upside down, gathering in huge flocks. At night, for them, the day is just beginning and they fly out of their homes in search of food.

Bats living in countries with a temperate and cool climate during the cold season hibernate, which lasts up to 8 months. Some individuals, when winter sets in, can migrate to a distance of about 2 thousand km, flying up to 35 km in one night.

The basis of the diet of representatives of the order of bats is usually insects. Some can catch bugs and butterflies in the air, while others pick up insects sitting on the leaves of plants. Among the animals living in the tropics, there are those who feed only on fruits, nectar and pollen of plants. But there are varieties of bats that eat both fruits and insects.

Some bats prefer to feed on fish and other aquatic inhabitants, and there are also individuals that eat small birds and mammals.

There are other, not quite ordinary types of bats - these are vampires that feed exclusively on the blood of animals, birds, and sometimes humans. Other representatives of the suborder - pseudo-vampires, are carnivorous predators, their diet includes birds, frogs, lizards and bats of another species.

Lives in nature very a large number of representatives of the order of bats, here are the most famous of them:

• Giant evening party. This is the largest variety of bats living in Europe and Russia. The length of her body is from 8.5 to 10.4 cm, weight - 41–76 years. The wingspan reaches 42–46 cm. The animal has a brown-red coat on the back and a lighter belly. Darker coloring prevails on the head near the ears.

The habitats of the bat are in the forests, and its range extends from France to the Caucasus. Often this species of animals inhabits the hollows of trees with other representatives of the suborder, less often forms its own colonies. The animal feeds on fairly large insects as well as small passerine birds, which it catches in the air at high altitude. This bat is listed in the Red Book.

• White leaf-bearing. This is a small animal with a body length of 3.6-4.7 cm, weighing no more than 7 grams, without a tail. The females are smaller than the males. Animals have a white coat color on the back, which then turns into a grayish rump. The lower abdomen also has grey colour. Animal nose and ears yellow color and are shaped like leaves.

White leaf-nosed live in South and Central America, preferring to find refuge in evergreen forests, climbing not very high. They feed on fruits and some types of Ficus at night. Usually these animals live alone or settle in small groups, no more than 5-6 individuals.

• Two tone leather. The animal has a body length of up to 6.5 cm, a wingspan of 27 to 33 cm. Its weight is from 12 to 24 grams. This bat got its name due to its color - a combination of two colors in it. The back of the animal is colored dark brown with a red tint, and the abdomen is gray or white. The muzzle, ears and wings are black.

The habitats of these bats are in Eurasia, from England and France to the coast Pacific Ocean. In Western European countries, these animals are often found in major cities. They can get along well in the neighborhood in the same shelter with other representatives of the bat species. Animals prey on mosquitoes, midges and other small insects throughout the night. Two-tone leathers are endangered and protected in many countries.

There are millions of different living beings on the planet. Due to the peculiarities of appearance and character, the bat occupies a special niche. The name "bat" appeared at the beginning of the 17th century from a German translation of the book.

Many people don't know if a bat is a bird or an animal. Bats have wings and can fly, but bats are members of the animal world. Such a mouse is the only animal on the planet that moves through the air with the help of wings. Central America became their home. These animals do not tolerate cold well, therefore they prefer the mild climate of Asia or the territory of Primorsky Krai. The animal belongs to the order placental mammals, species of bats. Let's see what a bat looks like.

They differ from each other in appearance and size. The common body size is from 3 to 10 cm, but there are also special individuals - false vampires. Their size is 40-50 cm, and their weight is up to 200 grams. The coat of a bat is thick and soft. It is usually grey, black or brown in color. There are animals with yellowish or orange color. Such a bright fur color is inherent in the Mexican fish-eating mouse.

At the Honduran bat white fur and the nose and ears are yellow. There is no fur on the wings. The muzzle resembles a pig snout with elements of a mouse appearance. There are individuals on whose body a fur coat is completely absent. There are such representatives in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

Bats vary internal structure skull and teeth. The long-tongued leaf-bearer has a long tongue with which it collects nectar. The elongated shape of the head is needed to fit the tongue.

Bats have a heterodont dental system, so they have canines, incisors, molars, and molars. Stronger and longer teeth are usually found in animals that feed on thick-shelled insects.

The number of teeth in different species of bats varies. For example, vampires have only 20 of them, while small mice can have up to 38. Vampires have sharp fangs to make bites, after which there is blood. In fruit-eating bats, the teeth are similar to the main part of the flower involved in the formation of the fruit.

Most representatives have a horn on their nose, resembling a rhinoceros nose, and large ears, similar to those of a hare, are located on their heads. The auditory organ improves the echo sounding of a mammal. The bat skeleton has several features. The forelimbs are of an unusual shape, one finger of which has a curved shape with a sharp end. "Hands" start from the hind limbs, reach the forearm and pass into elongated fingers. It turns out a kind of frame, constricted by a dense skin membrane.

The membrane serves as a wing to its mistress. In cold times, the mouse wraps itself in its membrane, like a cape. Bats are superior in mobility and aerodynamics to birds and insects. The flight speed of bats is from 10 to 50 km/h. Among the entire species of mice, the Brazilian folded lip reaches the highest speed up to 160 km / h. The membrane is greatly stretched, about 4 times, without being damaged. During the flight, the bat makes synchronous movements with its wings, strongly presses them to itself, thereby improving aerodynamics.

These mammals have very flexible wings, which allows them to turn 180 degrees without making a turn. The bat can hover in the air like an insect.

It is known that bats cannot see well, but they have excellent hearing. Many breeds of mice have a tragus on their ears, which improves and enhances the perception of sounds. False horseshoe bats can pick up the rustle of insects under the grass or among the foliage. Images for them appear in black and white. Echolocation helps them navigate in the dark. Ultrasonic impulses save from collisions with possible obstacles. However, bats are not completely blind, some see well and can catch prey with their eyes.

A well-developed olfactory sense helps to find their cubs after a night hunt, identify a stranger in a colony, or find sources of food.

Bat lifestyle

Mice prefer to live in large settlements, sometimes reaching more than a thousand individuals. True, there are animals that prefer to live alone. The Brazilian fold-lip colony has over 20 million individuals.

Bats hunt alone. They do not create families, but together only at the time of mating.

They sleep with their heads down and wrap themselves in their webbed wings. The bat is a nocturnal or crepuscular animal. Bats climb rocks well. During the flight, bats always emit a piercing squeak, the characteristics of which are comparable to the sound of an aircraft jet engine. The man does not hear him. Such ultrasonic waves are unbearable for human perception. Winter time the mammal spends in hibernation, and sometimes they fly away to warmer climes. Hibernation lasts up to 8 months.

Where and how long do bats live

The mammal inhabited almost the entire planet, with the exception of tundra and ice-covered lands. The animal easily adapts to natural conditions, therefore it can live almost anywhere.

Bats love places where there is no daylight. Mammals live in caves, basements, abandoned places, in hollows of trees. There are amazing individuals wrapped in banana leaves. Other representatives may live under bird nests, in bamboo stalks, or even in cobwebs.

They live an average of 5 years, but there are also centenarians whose age reaches 20 years. The record age among bats is 33 years.

At home, mice can live less than expected due to an inactive lifestyle.

How they breed

Individuals living in warm climatic zones may breed twice a year.

AT temperate latitudes Animals give birth to cubs once a year. Fertilization usually occurs in the autumn season before hibernation. Spermatozoa do not immediately fertilize the egg, they can be on the reservation until the female wakes up. Some males make special sounds that attract a female. It is impossible to describe exactly how bats groom and mate due to the secretive lifestyle of bats.

After awakening, the gestation period begins, which lasts depending on the temperature and the species. In a cold climate, the baby develops longer. Females give birth to one cub, rarely two or three. During childbirth, the female turns her head up. The birth of the cub takes place feet first, then it enters the tail bag, where it spends a week. Babies are hidden in a shelter and fed with milk.

This whole process gave the answer - the bat is a mammal or not. As a result, the animal was assigned to the appropriate class.

In the first week after birth, the female takes the cub with her to hunt, then, when it becomes heavy, she leaves it in the shelter. Before the age of one month, the babies are very weak and cannot hunt. Then they begin to catch prey near their shelter. Possessing a unique sense of smell, the female after the hunt can easily find the cub. Even being at a distance of several kilometers, the female can smell the baby.

Enemies of bats

Mammals don't have many natural enemies. Probably due to the nocturnal lifestyle, because they rarely intersect with anyone.

They hide their shelters well or live in large colonies, so many animals and birds are simply afraid of them.

Vespers, flying out at twilight, become the prey of daytime birds of prey: peregrine falcons, hawks or hobbies. Owls and owls love to hunt bats, but they are hard to catch. Chiroptera are saved by developed echolocation.

In the cave massifs of Hungary, tits attack the animal. They fly in at the moment of sleep and take the sleeping animal to their nest. True, tits are afraid large groups mammal due to mortal danger.

Bats sleeping on tree branches are often prey for tree snakes. The bat lacks adaptability to daytime life, so echolocation does not even save.

The mammal often falls into the clutches of spiders. In the dark, they do not see the web, and echolocation does not help. Some large spiders deliberately do not kill the insect, luring larger prey, in the face of a bat.

Weasels, ferrets and martens are also enemies for bats. They sneak up during sleep and kill the animal.

Man is afraid of bats, so the destruction of entire colonies of these animals occurs. It is important that this mammal benefits by killing insects. After all, some are carriers of dangerous diseases.

AT Asian countries Bat meat is considered a delicacy. Many bats are listed in the Red Book and are heavily protected.

What are the benefits of bats

Bats are very useful animals. They feed mainly on insects, which sometimes carry fatal diseases.

Bats save crops from pests. Flying from one flower to another, they help in the process of pollination.

Animal droppings are considered good fertilizer. It is known that in the caves you can find layers of excrement, reaching a meter.

Bat saliva is used for medicinal purposes.

domestic bat

When you want something exotic, people get a bat. These animals can get used to home conditions, but will feel uncomfortable. If you decide to have this animal, it is important to provide suitable conditions.

The bat loves the nocturnal lifestyle. During the day, a small animal prefers to sleep.

pet house

A large space is important for a bat, so you need to take care of a large aviary. It is decorated with branches so that the animal has somewhere to hide in daytime. Temperature is important for bats environment. The norm is 30 degrees.

A birdcage may not be suitable, as a bat can easily get between the twigs.

What to feed a bat at home

AT natural conditions Bats love to catch insects. Feeding should be done in the evening, once every 24 hours. At home, it is not possible to eat on their own, so it is necessary to provide the mammal with a correct and complete diet.

• flour worms;
• milk formulas for children up to a month;
• insect pupae;
• raw egg yolk;
• adult cockroaches;

For nutrition, we prepare the mixture, add honey, yolk and vitamin E. We take the animal in our hands and offer a treat through a pipette.

Insects for the animal are stored in a jar.

The bat should not be overfed, because home conditions are characterized by reduced activity, which is dangerous for the health of the animal.

Each animal is unique. Bats are no exception. They have an unusual appearance and beneficial to humans.

Bats are usually not the first to attack and are not as dangerous to humans as is commonly believed. But such a creature is able to bite if it senses danger and decides to defend itself. What threatens a person with a bat bite, what are its consequences? What are dangerous species animals that sometimes attack people, where they live, what types of diseases they carry and what should be done to someone who turned out to be bitten by a bat? Read about all this in the article.

Bats in view of their physiological features attributed by experts to the order Chiroptera.

Their family in general has about 700 various kinds. They are the only mammals capable of flying. Most animals eat insects, some prefer other treats, such as nectar, nuts, fruits. There are few species that feed on fish. Within the territory of South America There are 3 species that feed on the blood of vertebrates.

Do not panic, these species do not inhabit the territory of our country.

During the day, all types of bats prefer to stay in their homes, being active at dusk and at night. These creatures use echolocation in order to freely navigate in space. Its principle is simple, the animal emits sounds that the human ear cannot hear. Then the organs of his senses catch the echo, which tends to be reflected from the things and objects encountered on the way.

What does a bat look like, regardless of species? Wings occupy most of the body of this animal. He also has a small body with an elongated head and a short neck. Some species have a cute face, others can scare a person. unusual shape nose, huge ears and growths located on the head. The cutest member of the family is considered to be fruit dog. She has large and wide-open eyes, an elongated nose. Some species of mice got their names precisely from the shape of the nose - smooth-nosed, pig-nosed, horseshoe-nosed. The white bat has a "horn" on its muzzle that gives the nose the shape of a petal. In the bulldog mouse, a cartilaginous fold is located in the transverse direction on the muzzle. An excellent echolocation in a bat with ushan, due to the presence of huge auricles.

Video "Interesting facts about mammals"

From the video you will learn a lot about bats.

Dangerous features of the body

The body of mice is usually covered with thick and hard hair, on the muzzle there are growths specially designed to improve echolocation. In some species, the size of the auricles is equal to half the total length of the body, including the tail. These ears are considered the largest among all mammals, when compared with body size. Animals can fly with modified front limbs. Between the second and fifth fingers they have a characteristic leather membrane.

Some species received from nature a membrane located behind and connecting the hind limbs and tail. Tenacious and strong claws allow the flying animal to hold onto even the smallest bumps on any surface. The animal has small, but very sharp teeth. If a bat bites a person, he may not even feel it. Blood-sucking species are able to bite their prey even in a dream.

Where can you meet

Most often, such animals are found in forests and caves. They began to settle in cities as a result of deforestation and human development of caves, which is dangerous for bats, who are forced to look for new habitats. Many of these animals fly with the advent of twilight near forest plantations. Their flight from afar is similar to the flight of a swallow or a swift. If you look into the night sky, you can see a mouse flying back and forth. Can such a creature get into the apartment? Yes, but only by accident, if he confuses a window or a door with his own housing. If you were bitten by a bat, then it was scared.

If you find an animal in your house, you can not take it with your bare hands. You should wear thick gloves and remove the mouse from the home. You should not regard the entanglement of mice in white bed linen drying on the street or blond hair as an attempt on a person. Since many insects fly near light objects at night, the animal simply strives to get its own food.

Bats and rabies

Many are concerned about the following question, but what will the bite of such a creature be fraught with for a person? It is a carrier of 7 rabies genotypes, of which a person is able to infect not all, but only three. Moreover, the classic virus that wolves, foxes and other species of wild animals have is not found in bats. The remaining two genotypes are very difficult to infect.

Their carriers are late kozhan, water and pond bats. Nocci mostly live in dungeons, so they rarely visit cities. And among late kozhanov, not all individuals are sick. And those that are infected die pretty quickly due to damage. nervous system. The virus is not transmitted by airborne droplets.

It is found only inside the body of animals. Even if a lot of mice live near a residential building, they are unlikely to harm a person.

Since in families living near human habitation, only a couple of sick individuals are found. And even if, upon detection on your territory, you take with your hands, which are wearing tight gloves, a sick animal in order to take it out into the street, it will not bite through them. You will calmly let him go and will not catch rabies. Animals in colonies have a high titer of antibodies to rabies. Remember that these animals are in the Red Book and are protected by law. And in view of the fact that the population is poorly informed about the low degree of danger posed by animals, their shelters tend to destroy and kill them.

What to do with a bite

You can't just watch a person after being bitten by a bat and not be able to do anything. The animal that bit the man was most likely very frightened. You should immediately treat the wound with an antiseptic, which is at hand, and smear the bite site with an antibiotic ointment. But the ointment is only wound healing and will be useless if the animal is infected with rabies. The only way to prevent the disease is through vaccination.

From the moment of the bite to the appearance of its signs, an average of 10 - 60 days passes. characteristic symptoms are subfebrile temperature, itching and pain in the scar area, headaches, fatigue, nausea and difficulty swallowing, high sensitivity to external stimuli, disruption of normal sleep. After 3-4 days, auditory and visual hallucinations, aggression, and a sharp increase in temperature are added to them. The appearance of foam from the mouth is also characteristic. In the last stage, if timely vaccination is not carried out, paralysis of the limbs, disruption of the pelvic organs, and damage to the cranial nerves are observed. The result is a painful death.

Each of us has seen a bat at least once in a lifetime. They are, in fact, fluffy birds without feathers that flap their wings in search of someone's hair in which they build a nest, infecting the owner of the hair with rabies along the way. Even if the bat doesn't turn into a hungry vampire, most people prefer not to be around them... just in case. But in fact, we do not know much about these amazing creatures.

10. There are more than a thousand species of bats in nature.

On the this moment There are 1,240 different types of bats, and these are just the ones we know about. They are actually one of the most diverse animals on Earth. In total, bats are thought to make up 20 percent of all mammals in the world. Just imagine, someone, it turns out, had so much free time that he took up counting all the species of mammals on the planet. They counted every species of rodents, cats, dogs, monkeys, whales, and so on, and still came to the conclusion that the number of bats exceeds the number of any other animal species. Every fifth animal from this long furry row is a bat. And if you manage to look at all of them put together, you will be amazed at how much they differ from each other. Of all these hundreds of species of bats, fewer than fifty live in the temperate zones, so it's not at all difficult to forget that they can grow to giant size, such as, for example, bats living in the tropics, whose wingspan is 180 centimeters. Bats can also be tiny, like the pig-nosed bat found in Thailand, which is the smallest mammal in the world, as its body length is only 2.9-3.3 centimeters.

9 Bats Are Important Pollinators

They are important pollinators and seed sowers. Like bees and some birds, many bats flit merrily from flower to flower, drinking nectar, moving pollen between plants and spreading seeds through their droppings. Moreover, hundreds of things that we use in daily life have become available only thanks to bats. Such things as wild bananas, avocados, peaches, mangoes, cashews and many others depend on them. And that's just part of the food. Bats also ensure the survival of seventy-two species. medicinal plants, as well as dozens of other plants needed to produce wood, fiber and dyes. And even if this is not enough, then know that bats help one of the most important plants - agave. That's right, if there were no bats, tequila would have to be forgotten.

8 Bats Help Farmers Save Millions


Bats are an incredibly powerful pest control force. But you've probably already heard about it. Bats eat insects that no one likes and everyone is happy. You may have heard that one bat can destroy 1200 mosquitoes per hour. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for mosquitoes, this is only half true. Although they could probably do this, bats prefer to snack on meatier insects such as caterpillars and beetles. The good news is that most of the caterpillars and bugs they love are pests. In a recent study, a group of researchers decided to try and figure out how much money bats save American farmers every year by killing pests. They came up with an astonishing $3.7 billion. At a minimum, and at a maximum, this amount was about 50 billion. In any case, this amount is enough to buy every bat in the country something nice for their birthday.

6. Not all bats eat fruits and insects.


Some bats prefer larger prey. They are not all bloodsucking or insectivorous. Some bats are real hunters. For example, some species have evolved to be able to fish. Using their echolocation, they can make out the slightest signal ripples on the surface of the lake. Then they dive down and snatch the fish out of the water with their hind legs armed with claws. Having caught a fish, they fly to the nearest pole and eat the prey. Others, like the ghost bat found in Australia, prey on anything from rodents, lizards, frogs, nesting birds, and even other bats. They lunge at their prey from above, cover them with their wings and bite through their necks, killing them instantly before eating them. But none of the above mice can compare with a giant evening. During migration, some birds prefer to fly at night, ironically to avoid predators. In fact, they simply become an excellent snack for giant evening birds, which are able to grab even the fastest and most agile birds on the fly. If desired, they would certainly become excellent frisbee catchers.

5. Bats are smart and social animals.


Bats are smart and sociable. For example, long-eared bats form colonies and within the colony they are friends in groups of about twenty individuals each. Each such group is formed around the females of a separate family. Even though all the bats in the colony get along well with each other, they prefer to be in these small groups. Even if they do not see each other for a while, they will still gather in the same groups. Just like people, their friendships can change. Individual bats can forever leave one group and join another; only females connected by blood ties remain in place. If the grandmother leaves, the daughter and granddaughter will do the same. The amazing thing is that bats can distinguish between other individuals by the difference in their chirps, and they can also place other mice on something like mental map to always know where they are. It is believed that it is thanks to this ability that they can fly in thousands at great speed without turning into a bunch of fluffy spots on the walls of caves.

4. Bats are very long time fall into hibernation


The hibernation of bats can easily put the hibernation of bears to shame, making it look like a cat's midday nap. While bears simply fall asleep for periods of time lasting several weeks, bats practically freeze and spend months in this position. Their breathing slows until it becomes barely audible and their heart rate drops to just 25 beats per minute, compared to about 400 beats per minute when they are awake. Even more impressively, their body temperature drops in line with the surrounding air, which sometimes drops below freezing. They typically wake up for a few minutes every few weeks to drink, which they do by licking the condensed moisture off their fur, although bats have also been known to not even move for months.

3 Bats Are Surprisingly Loud


Sorry, we meant STUNNING LOUD. The researchers were able to determine that some species can produce sounds up to 140 decibels. To get a better idea of ​​just how loud this is, know that humans' pain threshold - the loudness at which sounds cause physical pain - is only about 120 decibels. Rock concerts are usually played at 110-115 decibels. Bats are not only the world's loudest aerial animals, but they are also much louder than any land animal. So why haven't we all been destroyed by bats gathered in a flock yet? The answer is that most of the sounds made by bats are too high frequency for the human ear. In fact, the high frequency of the sounds they make is believed to be the reason they are so loud. High-frequency noises don't travel through the air as well as low-frequency noises, so bats just yell rather than talk to make up for this. It is only unknown if they use their inner voice when communicating in the caves.

2 Bat Hearing And Echolocation Are Much Better Than You Think


Bats are world champions in echolocation, they make a sound and then listen to the echo of that sound bouncing off other objects. While dolphins use their echolocation to get stuck in webs, bats use their echolocation to pick out individual strands of webs. What makes bats so good at echolocation is called super-velocity muscle, which can move about a hundred times faster than a normal human muscle. They are the only ones known to science mammals that have a hyper-speed muscle that allows them to make squeaking sounds at up to 190 times per second, essentially giving bats the ability to "see" through sound, albeit for a short distance. Of course, there would be no point in echolocation without surprisingly good hearing to pick up returning sounds. But bats are fine with that. Their hearing is so good that they can hear insects moving underground next to a busy highway. And we have to ask each other to repeat what was said, since we did not hear the phrase because of the soft music.

1 Bats Migrate Great Distances By The Millions


In the US, many bats fly hundreds of miles during their seasonal migrations, looking for the same caves they have used to hibernate for centuries. But this is nothing compared to the annual migrations of palm fruit bats in Africa. In November each year, more than eight million of these big bats fly into National Park Kasanka National Park in Zambia, and spend the next couple of months hanging from perches in a tiny area less than half a hectare in size. Each tree can withstand up to ten tons of bats. During those two months, this tiny part of Zambia hosts the densest concentration of mammals on the planet. With the advent of dusk, they take off and close the sky, flying into surrounding forest, where they cluster around trees rich in ripe fruit at this time of the year. The weight of fruits eaten overnight is twice the weight of the bat itself. Researchers still don't know exactly where these bats spend the rest of the year, but they suspect they scatter all over Africa. What is known for sure is that they fly huge distances. Researchers who have attached tracking devices to some of these bats have found that they fly over 965 kilometers a month. In order to visualize this distance more clearly, you can mentally draw a straight line from Washington to Detroit.