| Where do they go in winter?
Bats go to caves, tunnels, icehouses
and mines to spend the winter hibernating. We still don't know where
the majority of bats go to for the winter months. Bats eat insects, frogs, fish,
fruit, nectar and pollen. There is type of bat called a Vampire that
feeds mainly on the blood of farm animals. These bats are only found
in central and South America Hollow trees, cracks on branches,
caves, mines, rock crevices, scree, cavity walls, hanging among leaves
Bats fly using a very thin membrane
stretched between their elongated finger bones and tail. Unlike birds
that fly using their breast muscles bats fly using their back muscles.
The muscle is the same one that gives a body builder the V shape No, there are almost 1000 different
bats in the world. Ranging in size from a bumblebee to a small cat.
Mostly they are brown or blackish but
there is one that has white fur with yellow ears, nose and wings This sound is beyond what we can hear but
within the hearing of cats and dogs. This sound is called ultrasonic.
Some bats are happy to live by
themselves or in a small family group of 1 male and a few females. The
biggest group of bats in the world is 20 million in Bracken Cave,
Texas Bats give out a special sound called
echolocation, which is like radar but far better. It gives them night
'vision' as good as we see during the day By using echolocation bats can 'see'
insects flying in front of them. Fruit bats find their food by smell
as do pollen and nectar feeders. Bats eat many harmful insects like
mosquitoes. One small pipistrelle can eat over 3000 insects in one
night. Pollen and nectar bats pollinate fruit that you and I eat.
Bananas, mangoes and cashews are bat pollinated. |