Batty Facts

Batty Facts

Class:Mammalia
Order:Chiroptera

1. With more than 1,100 different species of bats in the world, living on every continent except Antarctica, these furry fliers account for almost a quarter of all mammalian species.

2. These small insectivorous (insect eating) bats can eat up to 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in one hour.

3. But not all bats eat insects. Frugivorous (fruit-eating) bats living in tropical climates have very good eyesight and sense of smell for finding ripe fruit. The nectar-feeding bats of the desert have long noses and tongues for harvesting nectar from flowers, as well as special enzymes for digesting the high-protein pollen that accumulates on their faces. Carnivorous (meat eating) bats have sharp claws and teeth for catching small vertebrates such as fish, frogs, birds, or rodents. A few Latin American bats eat only blood, hence the name “vampire” bat.

4. Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing gasohol and antibiotics.

5. An anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients.

6. The common little brown bat of North America is the world's longest-lived mammal for its size, with life-spans sometimes exceeding 32 years.

7. Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti, including the organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona.

8. Tropical bats are key elements in rain forest ecosystems which rely on them to pollinate flowers and disperse seeds for countless trees and shrubs, including bananas, breadfruit, mangoes, cashews, dates, and figs.

9. 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.

10. African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet.

11. The infamous durian fruit of Southeast Asia has a strong scent, which is repellent to humans but appealing to fruit bats, the durian’s main pollinator.

12. Tiny woolly bats in West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders

13. 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 nearly six feet.

14. What are “flying foxes? The name flying fox refers to a group of nearly 200 bat species living in the Old World tropics of Australia, Africa, and the South Pacific Islands, and have faces resembling those of little foxes, hence their common name. These bats are generally larger than the insectivorous “microbats,” with wingspans of up to 5 ft. in some species. Flying foxes and other fruit and nectar-eating bats pollinate flowers and are seed dispersal agents, thus aiding in rainforest regeneration.

15. Some bat species roost in caves, while other species prefer trees, bridges or abandoned mines. Other bats may roost in shutters, eaves, or attics of houses or other buildings.

16. As primary predators of night-flying insects, bats play a key role in the balance of nature, consuming vast quantities of insects, many of which are costly agricultural and annoying or dangerous yard pests.

17. Numerous wild and important agricultural plants like bananas, breadfruit, mangoes, cashews, dates, kapok and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal. Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3,000th of normal without bat pollinators. 

Thank you bats!