do you know any interesting facts about bats.?

Question

i need help for a school project. do you have any interesting or unusuall facts about bats apart from that they are nocturnal and hang upside down

Answer 1

1.The greatest harm to bats is not knowing
anything about them , and this creates:
FEARS
DISLIKES
DESTRUCTION
AND POSSIBLE EXTINCTION OF BATS
This is caused by
MYTHS
or untrue stories!
SO, LET'S STAMP OUT MYTHS!
2. bats are not blind and many can see very well. Insect-eating bats depend on sound and very good hearing to find food and to get around in the dark. So don't say, "...as blind as a bat" because it is not true!
3.If bats can find tiny insects in total darkness, would they
get tangled up in your hair? No! They are much too smart to fly
into people.
4.While both bats and mice are mammals, bats are not rodents and are more closely related to primates and people. Besides...mice can't fly!
5.Bats are very clean and groom themselves just like cats. Bats can get rabies, like all mammals, but few ever do. Remember, bats are wild animals. You have nothing to fear if you never touch a bat.
6.Some mammals, like the flying squirrels can glide, but bats are the only mammals that can really fly. There are many different ways bats fly. Some can hover like hummingbirds while feeding on nectar, and a few flying foxes can soar in the air like eagles.
7.Bats are very, very helpful! They help control the insect population, reseed cut forests, and pollinate plants that provide food for humans. Bats also taught us about sonar. Bacteria in their guano is useful in improving soaps, making gasohol and producing antibiotics, besides being a fertilizer.
8.Bats can be found in almost every part of the world except where it is very, very hot or in the really cold areas and on some remote islands. They live on all continents except Antarctica. You can find more species of bats (different kinds) where the weather is nice and warm. Those warm spots are near the equator and are called the "tropics" and "rain forests."
On islands that are far from continents, there are only a few species of bats. That's because it's too far for most bats to fly this great distance to reach those islands.
In the United States, the greatest number of bat species live in the southwestern part of the country. This area has a variety of places where bats can live and there is a lot of food available during most of the year . For example, Texas has 32 different kinds of bats while Maine has only 8; and Arizona has 28 species, but Michigan has just 10.
9.Many bats find trees to be the perfect place to roost and spend time taking care of their babies. Some bats actually live under big leaves and by using camouflage they can hide from harm and danger. There are other bats that roost under the bark of trees, while still others just hang from the branches .
Perhaps the place where most people think bats live is in caves. And a lot of bats do find these big underground caverns a perfect place in which to raise their babies and to sleep during the day. Bracken Cave in Texas has close to 20 million Mexican Free Tail bats living there.

for more information pl. visit:
http://members.aol.com/bats4kids/index.htm

Answer 2

One cool thing I read about bats once: well actually it realtes to some of the insects in which they feed upon. It concerned various flying insects, one thta comes to mind is the praying mantis....apparently when the mantis detects the ultrasonic waves produced by the bats echolocation system, they will dive straight down out of the air. This vertical drop allows the mantis to escape the bat because if the bat were to drop as quickly as the insect, the G forces would cause it to pass out, thereby limiting the bats ability to catch certain prey....
pretty cool eh?

Answer 3

Bats are divided into 2 groups the megabats and the microbats. The former are generally frugivores and do not echolocate the latter are typically insectivorous and do echolocate.

The bumblebee bat is the smallest mammal in the world.

They are not blind.

Some plants depend on bats for pollination. They have an acoustic horn which opens up at night and attracts the bats.

Answer 4

Despite the widespread prejudices and dislike of bats by the general public, bats are, in fact, highly beneficial to humans.

Insectivorous bats eat many tons of flying insects every night, including biting flies such as mosquitoes.

There are a number of tropical crops, such as bananas and sugar cane that require bats for pollination. Without bats we wouldn't have those fruits, or Bacardi rum.

More people have died from food poisoning contracted from bad potato salad at church picnics than have conclusively contracted rabies from bats.

Bats that contract rabies have a tendency to curl up and die, rather than becoming aggressive and attacking other animals. Raccoons, foxes, skunks and especially dogs are much more likely to be vectors of rabies than bats are.

Answer 5

There are two suborders of bats-microbats and megabats.
It may sound like megabats eat insect and microbats eat fruits but its exactly the opposite.Microbats eat insects and megabats eat fruits.Microbats are the only ones who use echo location,but a megabat called flying fox and its realtives also use this technique.Bats cannot fly using their own power,they use gravity to gain enough speed first,this is why they hang upside down.

Answer 6

A single brown bat can catch 1200 mosquito sized insects in just one hour

Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3,000th of normal without bat pollinators

an anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients

tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders

The pallid bat of west N. America is immune to the stings of scorpians and even the seven-inch centipedes upon which it feeds.

Answer 7

They can go into "Torpor".
This means that their heartbeat slows to 5 beats a minute, their body temperature drops significantly and they go into a comatose state. It is to preserve heat and energy in their downtimes.
They also beat their wings like 100 times in 10 seconds!
It is also super easy to build a bat house - I just built one on Saturday! You can find the plans online - it takes 15 minutes and is not expensive at all.
Good Luck!

Answer 8

Ok, this is interesting. Bats were once considered for weapons in WWII. Here is the wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb

Answer 9

They are protected. Right now there is a huge overpopulation problem in Georgia check yesterdays paper. They eat alot of insects. they are harmless social animals. no they don't have rabies. they like to habitat in warm hot & high places.

Answer 10

Bat feces is used in the manufacturing of make-up.