Why Bats Are So Amazing, Important & Misunderstood - part II

Tamana Cave, Trinidad - photo by Daniel Riskin

Some Amazing Bat Trivia

click on the links to view a photo of the bat/s*

• The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
• Giant flying foxes that live in Indonesia have wingspans of six feet.
• The common little brown bat of North America is the world's longest-lived mammal for its size, with life spans sometimes exceeding 34 years.
• Mexican free-tailed bats sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or to catch tailwinds that carry them over long distances at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.
• The pallid bat of western North America is immune to the stings of scorpions and even the seven-inch centipedes upon which it feeds.
• Fishing bats have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair, protruding only two millimeters above a pond's surface.
• African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle from more than six feet away.
• Frog-eating bats distinguish between edible and poisonous frogs by listening to the male frogs' mating calls. The frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult-to-locate calls.
• Red bats, which live in tree foliage throughout most of North America, can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees Fahrenheit during winter hibernation.
• Tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders.
• The Honduran white bat is snow white with a yellow nose and ears. It cuts large leaves to make "tents" that protect its small colonies from jungle rains.
• Vampire bats adopt orphans and have been known to risk their lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates.**
• Male epauleted bats have pouches in their shoulders that contain large, showy patches of white fur, which they flash during courtship to attract mates.
• Mother Mexican free-tailed bats find and nurse their own young, even in huge colonies where many millions of babies cluster at up to 500 per square foot.

(taken from a BCI booklet from the 1990's "Amazing Bat Trivia")

* Note that you are linking to photos on other people's websites and these photos are/may be copyrighted by the owners.

** This is a fascinating altruistic behavior that is exhibited by vampire bats. Reciprocal Altruism (wikipedia)