Do bats have any natural enemies other than humans?

Question

What controls the bat population? I can't think of one animal that feeds on them, and if no animals feed on them, how do they get rabies? Isn't an animal bite necessary to transmit rabies?

Answer 1

Pretty much any carnivore will eat bats if they can catch them, that is why bats spend all day hiding in caves, hollow logs and so forth. Any bat that ventures out in daytime will be eaten within minutes.

The list of predtaors includes all the usual suspects such as cats, dogs, snakes, racoons, hawks, shrikes and so forth but also includes almost any carnivore you can imagine. I've seen bats being eaten by crocodiles, spiders, other bats and, as kawaii holwingwolves aid, by frogs. Bats ae incredibly small animals and are weak even for their size making them prey for almost anything at all that can catch them.

As for how bats get rabies, normally the disease is transmitted from bat to bat directly which removes any need for the animals to be attacked by another rbaid aniamnl and survive. In the real world the chances of any bat surviving an attack by a predtaor are effectively nil.

You should also realise that rabies is present in an extremely low proportion of bats. Bat biologist Edward Stashko of Oakton College, Des Plaines, Illinois, estimates that less than one-half of 1 percent of bats are rabid. He says many common misconceptions about bats, such as that they can carry rabies and infect humans without themselves being affected by the disease, grew out of faulty scientific research from the 30s, no doubt conducted at the behest of the rat lobby.

According to a 1982 report in National Wildlife, only ten people in the U.S. and Canada have contracted rabies from bats in more than 30 years. Exclaims Dr. Stashko: "More people have died from lawn mowers than from bats. Statistically you have a better chance of being hit by lightning than being bitten by a rabid bat."
According to the CDC, by far the highest incidence of rabies among animals tested occurs not in bats but in skunks.

Answer 2

Bats Predators

Answer 3

Yes bats do have other creatures that feed on them. I have visited Bracken bat cave (northeast of San Antonio,TX) home to the largest Mexican Free-Tail bat colony in the world and have seen Red-Tail Hawks, Falcons other birds of prey even snakes getting a meal when the bats leave the cave to feed on insects at sunset. Also if you count disease then they too would live off the bats. To find more about bats check out Bat Conservation International's website. Bats are very good for our enviroment by eating 4x their own weight in insects every day. By the way the Bracken colony eats around 1 to 2 tons of insects a day.

Answer 4

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RE:
Do bats have any natural enemies other than humans?
What controls the bat population? I can't think of one animal that feeds on them, and if no animals feed on them, how do they get rabies? Isn't an animal bite necessary to transmit rabies?

Answer 5

Yes. Large spiders, snakes, nocturnal birds and mammals, even other bats are their natural enemies.
Bat population is controlled by habitat destruction by humans, loss of roosting sites(they roost in caves, tunnels, culvert, tombs, ruins, under shallow rock overhangs, in cracks and crevices, under loose rubble, in buildings, under bark, in hollow trees, shrubs or bushes), indiscriminate use of pesticides, and persecution.
Only vampires bats in Central and South America have been found to carry rabies. Most bats don't bite humans. Rabies in bats is due to the sanguinivorous habits of the things they eat like insects, frogs, lizards, small rodents and fish.

Answer 6

depending on what species of bats your talking about. What feeds on bats are hawks, owls (or any kind of bird of prey), racoons, snakes, in someplace (forgot where) theres a frog with a really big mouth that even feeds on bats. They probably get the rabies from racoons or some other animal it had the misfortune of meeting. Cats have even been known to catch and eat some bats. My cat Max use to catch them, so i started keeping him in at nights.

Answer 7

There are things that eat bats including owls, raccoons, snakes, hawks, foxes and cats, but the way they multiple I am pretty sure it is food supply that limits population.

Answer 8

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Primarily other humans. The population of locals who aspire to be yobs, murderers, rapists and thieves. And their women.

Answer 9

Snakes prey on them, and they have thicks as parasites, flatworms, fleas.
They get rabies biting infected mammals, not by being bitten themselves.

Answer 10

yes