BATS What do you call a little bat? A battle.
What do you call a bat in a belfry? A dingbat.
Why did the bat use mouthwash? Because he had bat breath! Which bat knows the ABC’s? The alpha bat!
“Catch a bat in your hat and good luck will follow!”
In Chinese art 5 bats represent the blessings of Health, long life, prosperity, love of virtue, and peaceful death.
How we think about animals depends on our cultural biases. Blind as a bat! Wise as an Owl! Smart as a fox! Hungry as a bear! Busy as a bee! Bats are mammals and make up the order Chiroptera. There is evidence bats have existed for 50 million years or longer. They are warm blooded, nocturnal, nurse their babies with milk, and have fur. There are over 900 species of bats, but only 3 are vampires located in Central and South America. They suck blood from the wounds of birds and mammals. A lot of bats, including the flying fox, eat fruit. Other bats eat insects, frogs, fish, and other small animals. Because they are active at night their life seems mysterious. Bats are the only mammals that can fly with “hand wings”. Their finger bones are elongated and connected with membranes. If we had fingers like a bat they would be longer than our legs! A few tropical bats have a wingspan of 6 feet, but most bats are small (1/10th of a pound in the U.S.). They have enlarged ears, bizarre noses, and the habit of hanging upside down. Their leaf- noses and large ears are involved in echolocation. Bats produce a high- pitched burst of sound and then their brain analyses the echo for finding their way and finding their prey. Bats’ brains process the auditory information within those echoes as visual maps. All bats can see and all bats are sensitive to changing light levels because this is the main cue that they use to sense when it is nighttime and time to become active. To track down prey, avoid predators and find their way home in the dark, most bats depend on echolocation. They broadcast high-pitched sonar signals and listen for the echoes of sound waves bouncing off objects they’re looking for or obstacles in their path. Biologists listen to bat sounds with bat detectors that translate the ultrasonic signal into a range that we can hear. Bats increase the number of calls before they attack prey in order to pinpoint their meal. Many insects can hear echolocation and hide. You may see bats at night around lights trying to catch insects. In the southwest, the long-nosed bats seek fruit nectar of the saguaro cactus and agave. The organ pipe cactus has flowers that open at night and is dependent on bats for pollination. Bats eat the fruits and disperse the seeds in their guano. Bats carry their babies for 4 months and have 1 single “pup” each year. The red bat has multiple births. Baby bats are born big like a 120 lb. woman having a 40 lb. baby. There are large maternity crèches but some species roost alone. Mother bats feed babies milk and babies make a distinct sound that the mother recognizes. Babies grow quickly and in 3 moths the little brown bat is ready to fly. The big brown bat is ready in 1 month. Fifty percent of babies die the first winter. Bats are present throughout most of the world and perform vital ecological roles such as pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Many tropical plant species depend entirely on bats to distribute their seeds. The greatest numbers of bats are in the tropics. Bats are absent from the poles and the very dry desert. Forty species live in the United States. Hawaii has 1 bat species. CA. has 25 bat species. About seventy percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species such as the Fish-eating bat feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire bats being the only mammalian parasite species. Bats play an important role in controlling pests (the mosquito.) They need to eat 30-50% of their body weight nightly. A single bat can eat enough mosquitoes in a single evening to save several people the agony of these insects that bite and cause great itching bumps protecting us from malaria, dengue, and yellow fever. Bat droppings are good fertilizer. Bats are disappearing due to the destruction of habitats, pesticides, and roosting sites being disturbed. Bats are very sensitive and susceptible to pesticides. The gray bat is endangered in the U.S., and so are the Hawaiian hoary bat, Indiana bat, Mexican long nosed, and big-eared bat. Bats live 10 – 30 years and often migrate with the seasons to more sheltered sites. They may migrate 300 miles in all directions of their summer home. The free tailed bats may migrate 1000 miles to Brazil or Mexico. When bats hibernate, their body temperature drops to save energy and their heartbeat slows to 10 beats/minute. Their heart beats 13,000 times a minute in flight. Flight has enabled bats to become one of the most widely distributed groups of mammals. Apart from the Arctic, the Antarctic and a few isolated oceanic islands, bats exist all over the world. Bats are found in almost every habitat available on Earth. Different species select different habitats during different seasons — ranging from seacoast to mountains and even deserts — bat habitats have two basic requirements: roosts, where they spend the day or hibernate, and places for foraging. Bat roosts can be found in hollows, crevices, foliage, and even human-made structures; and include “tents” that bats construct by biting leaves. Inside a cavern in Mexico there are 20 million bats hanging by their toes. It is the largest concentration of warm-blooded animals in the world! At dusk they all fly out to feed. Because they are active at night their life seems mysterious. The scientists who discovered Onychonycteris finneyi, the oldest known bat fossil concluded that the prehistoric species could fly but that the sonar sense didn’t evolve until later. When scientists examined O. finneyi, as part of the study, their results suggested that the ancient species may have shared that same echo locating bone structure. Though echolocation is a relatively primitive trait, existing since at least 50 million years ago, researchers are still discovering new complexities about the sonar system. Most bats do have bad eyesight, but they are definitely not blind. What they see can sometimes interfere with what they hear. We know that visual information can override echolocation information even when the echolocation information contradicts the visual information. A captive bat in a darkened room might fly into a window since it sees light coming through pane as an escape route, although echolocation sonar tells it there’s an obstacle in the way. In laboratory tests, bats have been shown to be able to distinguish shapes and colors. This is not unlike dolphins that use echolocation to hunt, especially in the murky depths. Their eyes, while small and sometimes poorly developed, are also completely functional, not to mention the fact that they have excellent hearing and sense of smell. Perhaps the saying should be changed to “Keen as a Bat”? The smallest bat is the bumblebee bat (with a wingspan of 6 inches=15 cm. It is arguably the smallest extant species of mammal, with the Etruscan shrew being the other contender. The largest species of bat is the Giant Golden-crowned Flying-fox, which is 336–343 mm (13.23–13.50 in) long, has a wingspan of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and weighs approximately 1.1–1.2 kg (2–3 lb). Two traditionally recognized suborders of bats are: 1. Megachiroptera (megabats) 2. Microchiroptera (microbats/echolocating bats) Not all megabats are larger than microbats. The major distinctions between the two suborders are: Microbats use echolocation: megabats do not with the exception of Rousettus and relatives. Microbats lack the claw at the second toe of the forelimb. The ears of microbats do not close to form a ring: the edges are separated from each other at the base of the ear. Microbats lack under fur: they are either naked or have guard hairs. At 130 decibels in intensity, bat calls are some of the most intense airborne animal sounds. To clearly distinguish returning information, bats must be able to separate their calls from the echoes they receive. Microbats use two distinct approaches. Low Duty Cycle Echolocation: Bats can separate their calls and returning echoes by time. Bats that use this approach time their short calls to finish before echoes return. This is important because these bats contract their middle ear muscles when emitting a call so that they can avoid deafening themselves. The time interval between call and echo allows them to relax these muscles so they can clearly hear the returning echo. The delay of the returning echoes provides the bat with the ability to estimate range to their prey. High Duty Cycle Echolocation: Bats emit a continuous call and separate pulse and echo in frequency. The ears of these bats are sharply tuned to a specific frequency range. They emit calls outside of this range to avoid self-deafening. They then receive echoes back at the finely tuned frequency range by taking advantage of the Doppler shift of their motion in flight. The Doppler shift of the returning echoes yields information relating to the motion and location of the bat’s prey. These bats must deal with changes in the Doppler shift due to changes in their flight speed. They have adapted to change their pulse emission frequency in relation to their flight speed so echoes still return in the optimal hearing range. Two groups of moths exploit a bat sense to echolocate: tiger moths produce ultrasonic signals to warn the bats that they (the moths) are chemically protected or aposematic. This was once thought to be the biological equivalent of “radar jamming”, but this theory has yet to be confirmed. The moths Noctuidae have a hearing organ called a tympanum, which responds to an incoming bat signal by causing the moth’s flight muscles to twitch erratically, sending the moth into random evasive maneuvers. Vision is used to navigate microbats especially for long distances when beyond the range of echolocation. It has even been discovered that some species of microbats are able to detect ultraviolet light. The finger bones of bats are much more flexible than those of other mammals because the cartilage in their fingers lacks calcium and other minerals nearer the tips, increasing their ability to bend without splintering. The skin on their wing membranes has more elasticity and can stretch much more than other mammals. The wings of bats are much thinner than those of birds, so bats can maneuver more quickly and accurately than birds. It is delicate, ripping easily, however the tissue of the bat’s membrane is able to regrow, so small tears can heal quickly. The surface of their wings is equipped with touch-sensitive receptors on small bumps called Merkel cells, found in most mammals including humans, similarly found on our finger tips. These sensitive areas are different in bats as each bump has a tiny hair in the center, making it even more sensitive and allowing the bat to detect and collect information about the air flowing over its wings, thereby providing feedback to the bat to change its shape of its wing to fly more efficiently. An additional kind of receptor cell is found in the wing membrane of species that use their wings to catch prey. This receptor cell is sensitive to the stretching of the membrane. The cells are concentrated in areas of the membrane where insects hit the wings when the bats capture them. The teeth of microbats resemble insectivores. They are very sharp to bite through the hardened armor of insects or the skin of fruit. Mammals have one-way valves in veins to prevent the blood from flowing backwards, but bats also have one-way valves in arteries. One species of bat has the longest tongue of any mammal relative to its body size. This is beneficial to them in terms of pollination and feeding. Their long narrow tongues can reach deep into the long cup shape of some flowers. When their tongue retracts, it coils up inside their rib cage. Bats rarely fly in rain as the rain interferes with their echolocation, and they are unable to locate their food. Studies show that bats make all kinds of sounds to communicate with others. Scientists have been able to identify some sounds with some behaviors bats will make after the sounds are made. At least two species of bat are known to feed on bats: the Spectral Bat, known as the American False Vampire bat, and the Ghost Bat of Australia. One species, the Greater Noctule bat, catches and eats small birds in the air. Predators of bats include bat hawks and bat falcons. Most bats have a breeding season, which is in the spring for species living in a temperate climate. Bats may have one to three litters in a season, depending on the species and on environmental conditions such as the availability of food and roost sites. Females generally have one offspring at a time. Female bats nurse their youngsters until they are nearly adult size; this is because a young bat cannot forage on its own until its wings are fully developed. Female bats use a variety of strategies to control the timing of pregnancy and the birth of young, to make delivery coincide with maximum food ability and other ecological factors. Females of some species have delayed fertilization, in which sperm are stored in the reproductive tract for several months after mating. In many cases, mating occurs in the fall, and fertilization does not occur until the following spring. Other species exhibit delayed implantation, in which the egg is fertilized after mating, but remains free in the reproductive tract until external conditions become favorable for giving birth and caring for the offspring. In yet another strategy, fertilization and implantation both occur but development of the fetus is delayed until favorable conditions prevail. All of these adaptations result in the pup being born during a time of high local production of fruit or insects. At birth the wings are too small to be used for flight. Young microbats become independent at 6 to 8 weeks, while megabats don’t until they are four months old. Bats’ guano is so rich in nutrients that it is mined from caves, bagged, and used by farmers to fertilize their crops. During the U.S. Civil War, guano was used to make gunpowder. The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas is the summer home to North America’s largest urban bat colony, an estimated 1,500,000 Mexican free-tailed bats, which eat an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects each night. An estimated 100,000 tourists per year visit the bridge at twilight to watch the bats leave the roost. A bat house constructed in 1991 at the University of Florida campus next to Lake Alice in Gainesville, Florida has a population of over 100,000 free-tailed bats. The bat is also a totem. If one’s totem is a bat, these people are typically extremely aware of their surroundings and are perceptive on a psychic level, especially in their dreams. In addition, self-improvement using the bat as a totem requires 100% commitment to spiritual growth. People often wear either a bat tattoo or bat jewelry as a symbol of their totem. In some Native American traditions, the bat was considered a symbol of intuition and vision due to it being highly sensitive to its surroundings. As such, a bat spirit would be invoked when special energy was needed to see though ambiguity, helping medicine people and shamans dive straight to the truth. In addition, the bat was a symbol of communication because it was highly social with their group. However, some groups of Native Americans such as the Creek, Cherokee, and Apache, believe that the bat is a trickster spirit. Bats have long been associated with witchcraft, black magic and darkness. The witches incorporate bat in their brew in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The fact that bats are mammals, yet can fly gives them status as liminal beings in many cultural traditions. The bat is sacred in Tonga and is often considered the physical manifestation of a separable soul. Bats are closely associated with vampires, who are said to be able to shape shift into bats, fog, or wolves. Bats are also a symbol of ghosts, death, and disease. Chinese lore claims the bat is a symbol of longevity and happiness, and is similarly lucky in Poland and geographical Macedonia and among the Kwakiutl and Arabs. Pre-Columbian cultures associated animals with gods and often displayed them in art. The Moche people depicted bats in their ceramics. In Western Culture, the bat is often a symbol of the night and its foreboding nature. The bat is a primary animal associated with fictional characters of the night, both villains like Dracula and heroes like Batman. The association of the fear of the night with the animal was treated as a literary challenge by Kenneth Oppel, who created a best selling series of novels, beginning with Silverwing, which feature bats as the central heroic figures much as anthropomorphized rabbits were the central figures to the classic novel Watership Down. An old wives’ tale has it that bats will entangle themselves in people’s hair. One likely source of this belief is that insect-eating bats seeking prey may dive erratically toward people, who attract mosquitoes and gnats, leading the squeamish to believe that the bats are trying to get in their hair. In Mesoamerican mythology during the Classic-Contemporary period, bats symbolized the land of the dead, which was considered to be theunderworld. They also symbolized destruction and decay. Bats may have been symbolized in this way because they fly only at night and dwell in caves during the daytime and are associated with human skulls and bones by classic Maya ceramists. In the Postclassical era Central Mexicans depicted bats having snouts that looked like sacrificial knives and carrying a human head. Bat images were engraved onto funerary urns and were emphasized with large claws and round ears by Zapotecs. The depiction of bats on funeral urns and goods took on some the characteristics of the jaguar, which was and still is another entity of the night and the underworld. There have been instances where bats are portrayed next to other animals portrayed negatively in Mesoamerica, including scorpions and other nocturnal animals such as owls. A gigantic, life-size ceramic batman has been discovered and dug up from the Templo Mayor. The Templo Mayor is located in the center of the Mexican capital of Tenochtitlan. Known as a god of death, this statue has the clawed feet and hands of a bat, but the body of a man. The statue’s human-like eyes bulged out from the bat-like head, making the Zapotec images very realistic and living. It was said that in the 1930s the Kaqchikel Maya proclaimed that the bat was the Devil’s provider. Kaqchikel would leave the Devil’s underworld home and collect blood from the animals to be used for scrumptious meals to feed the Devil. “In the myths, the beast of prey and the animal that is preyed upon play two significant roles. They represent two aspects of life—the aggressive, killing, conquering, creating aspect of life, and the one that is the matter or, you might say, the subject matter”. In the Devil’s underworld, dead sinners would work off their sins in order to get to heaven, indicating that the bat was too a sinner and worked under the authority of the Devil. Oaxacans believe that the jealousy of the bat in wanting birds’ feathers that gently fit their bodies led him to become nocturnal. The bat feeling isolated and undesirable spoke to God after that he complained he was extremely cold. God, fair and just turned to birds in the animal kingdom and asked if they would show compassion and donate a feather to the bat so the feathers would keep him warm. The birds all agreed, and began to pluck one feather from their bodies to give to the bat. With all of the feathers, the bat became much magnificent looking than all birds, even able to spread color to the night sky. During daylight, the bat created rainbows that reflected vibrant colors from the sun. The bat soon became overly arrogant and conceited having this new and improved look. The birds grew tired of the bat’s self conceit and glorification, and decided to fly up to heaven and speak to God to do something. The birds informed God of the bat’s behavior. God was surprised and decided to take a look himself. When on Earth, God called on the bat to show him what he was doing. The bat began to fly across the light blue sky, where one by one each feather began to fall out, uncovering the bat’s natural ugly looking body. The bat became ashamed and distressed of his appearance after all feathers came off. Missing the beautiful, plentiful feathers he had, he decided to hide in caves during the day. He would only come out during the night, searching high and low for the feathers to avoid embarrassment of being seen during his search. According to a particular East Nigerian tale, the bat developed its nocturnal habits after causing the death of his partner the bush-rat. The bat and the bush-rat would share activities such as rummaging through the grass and trees, hunting, talking and bonding during the day. At night the bat and the bush-rat would alternate in cooking duties and eat together. It appeared to be a dedicated partnership, however the bat hated the bush-rat immensely. The bush rat always found the bat’s soup more appetizing so when eating dinner one night asked the bat why the soup tasted better than his own and how it was made. The bat agreed to show him how to make it the next day but instead was forming a malicious plan. Next day as bat prepared his soup, the bush-rat came, greeting him and asked if he could be shown what was agreed yesterday. Earlier, the bat had found a pot looking exactly like the one he used, but it held warm water so the bat decided to use this instead. The bat explained to the bush-rat that to make his soup, he had to boil himself prior to serving the soup where sweetness and flavor of the soup came from the flesh. The bat jumped in the pot seemingly excited, with the bush-rat mesmerised. After a few minutes the bat climbed out and while the bush-rat was distracted, switched pots. The bat then served his soup out of the soup pot, both tasted it. Over anxious and eager, the bush-rat, jumped into the pot of warm water. He stayed much longer in the pot dying in the process. When the bush-rat’s wife returned that night to find her husband dead, she wept and ran to the chief of the land’s house telling him about what happened and what the bat had done. In hearing this, the chief became angry, ordering the immediate arrest of the bat. It just so happened that the bat was flying over the house and overheard what was just said. He quickly went into hiding high up in a tree. When the chief’s men went looking for the bat, he could not be found. The search to arrest the bat carried on over several days, but still it could not be found. The bat needed to eat, so flew out of hiding every night to hunt for food to escape being arrested. This, according to Eastern Nigeria mythology, is why bats only fly at night. Three U.S. states have an official state bat. The Mexican free-tailed bat represents Texas and Oklahoma. The Virginia big-eared bat represents Virginia.