Do bats really roost upside down, if so why, if not where did the idea come from?

Answer 1

Yes they do.
Roosting upside down has a number of advantages for the bat.
As the majority of bats are nocturnal (feeding on night flying insects such as moth's) they need somewhere safe to roost during the day if they roosted on ledges or branches they would be easy prey for daytime predators. (fruit bats have some degree of protection from their size).
Most bats in the arboreal regions of the earth hibernate this requires a place that has a more or less constant temperature above freezing such as a cave or inside a hollow tree where the bats can hibernate unmolested there is a lot more safe roof space in a cave than ledge space and the warm air around the bats will stay with them at the roof of the cave /hollow tree.
If you think about it if you have evolved to fly and most of your prey is in the air then it is much easier and energy efficient to just let go and start flying than to have to jump and physically haul your carcase into the air.

Answer 2

Bats do roost upside down but a Stab roosts the other way up.
A rooster roosts with his head under his wing - in a roost.
Bat pooh sometimes causes mesothelioma in speleologists.
Isn't language wonderful? Isn't nature the best thing?

Answer 3

Gravity?

They do roost upside down - on cave roofs (or is it ceilings). Like sloths (which hang upside down on tree branches) they were just made that way. They can cling onto rocky walls and ceilings with specially adapted claws, and fold their thin leathery wings across themselves and stay there until night, when they (most species) go out to hunt insects. I've often seen them in Greece, after dark, flitting in and out of the street lamp lights, because that's where the insects are. Bats are practically blind and navigate by sound (they calculate distance from the returning echo), not sight.

If you are about to do building works in the UK, and find bats roosting in the building where you would disturb them, you are not allowed to continue without special permission (which you would be very lucky to get). Bats are protected.

Answer 4

Yes, the entire bat species roost upside down without exception. The bats have the ability to fly because they have patagium (fold of the skin) connecting the limbs and body, which they use as wings. Since the patagium is also connected to the legs and the legs are modified to help flying, they can not support the weight of the body. So the easiest and convenient ways to roost is to hang upside down. The claws of the legs act as hooks.

Answer 5

Yes, they do. I can't figure out why though! I've tried to equate it to birds roosting upright and why bats do the opposite. It must be something to do with gravity. Bats are rodents with wings so their weight is distributed in a different way from birds'? Must be something like that - I think.....? Don't like them coming down and picking my hair when I'm trying to eat! On the other hand, it's real fun watching my cats watching bats...........

Answer 6

Hanging upside down gives the bat an ideal position to take off faster.
Their wings are not as powerful as that of the birds that it will be hard for them to lift themselves in order for them to fly.
Hanging upside down, they can just let go and as they fall through the air they will get the necessary momentum for taking off into flight.

Answer 7

Because their diet does not produce enough energy to stand upright on a perch like birds? Or maybe they are just lazy? Where the bats got the idea from is an interesting question. It must be one of those things that mummy bats tell their kids when they are quite young.

Answer 8

via fact they could placed their ft up. considering that bats are the only mammals who can fly, with wingspans beginning from 6" to 6', they did no longer make great strides interior the walking-approximately, or interior the status departments. Their legs and ft are purely no longer sturdy adequate to help those applications for great lengths of time. For this very reason, bats, whilst of their bat caves, or roosting in timber, take the burden off of their drained limbs via putting the different way up.

Answer 9

Bats are nocturnal mammals that rest at the day time and feed at night. Their hind limbs are designed to grip roosting points firmly as they take their rest. Their front limbs form the wings with which they fly. I don't seem to know the mechanism; but blood does not flood their brain as the hang upside down.

Answer 10

Bats do sleep upside down as their legs will not support their weight stood up.