Bats: Profile and Information

Bats are members of the order Chiroptera and are the only mammals that can fly.

Bats can sustain flight by flapping their spread-out digits, which are covered by thin membranous tissue (patagium) that they use for flying.

These flying mammals are more maneuverable than birds.

Their ability, combined with their ability to navigate their way using an acoustic orientation technique, has made their order highly popular.

List of Common Bat Species

As described by naturalists and zoologists, there are about 1,200 species of bats. These bat species are divided into two suborders: Megachiroptera, or megabats, and Microchiroptera, or microbats.

Some of the generally found bat species are listed below:

• Egyptian fruit bat
• California leaf-nosed bat
• Honduran white bat
• Indian flying fox
• Big brown bat
• Peter’s dwarf epauletted fruit bat
• Split-nosed bat
• Brown long-eared bat
• Striped yellow-eared bat
• Mediterranean horseshoe bat
• Desert long-eared bat
• Pygmy pipistrelle
• Greater false vampire bat
• Lesser false vampire bat
• Great fruit-eating bat
• Eastern red bat
• Kitti’s hog-nosed bat
• Lesser short-nosed fruit bat
• Spotted bat
• Hoary bat
• Spectacled flying fox
• Southern little yellow-eared bat
• Sulawesi fruit bat
• Pale spear-nosed bat
• Gambian epauletted fruit bat
• Pallid bat
• Little brown bat
• Mexican free-tailed bat
• Virginia big-eared bat
• Mariana fruit bat
• Island tube-nosed fruit bat
• Mountain tube-nosed fruit bat
• Dwarf flying fox
• Masked flying fox
• Big-eared flying fox
• Long-haired rousette
• Yellow-winged bat
• Arabian trident bat
• Fawn leaf-nosed bat
• Fulvus round leaf bat
• Large-footed bat
• Geoffroy’s bat
• Fish-eating bat
• Clear-winged woolly bat
• Western barbastelle
• Silver-haired bat
• Western red bat
• Evening bat
• Tricolored bat
• Indian pipistrelle
• Little forest bat

Physical Description and Appearance

Size

Bat size varies depending on what species it is. The smallest bat species is Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, with a length of 1.14-1.34 (29-34 mm), with a wingspan of 15 cm. One of the largest bats is the golden-crowned flying fox with a wingspan of 4.9-5.6 ft (1.5-1.7 m) and a forearm length measuring up to 8.5 (215 mm).

Weight

The Kitti’s hog-nosed bat weighs about 0.07-0.09 oz (2-2.6 g), while the giant golden-crowned flying fox can weigh up to 1.6 kg (4 lb).

Head

The shape of the bat’s head varies depending on the species. The megabats have bigger eye sockets, longer snouts, and smaller ears. This gives them a dog-like appearance. Smaller bat species, such as the vampire bats, have reduced snouts for housing large incisors and canines.

Color

Bats are usually brown or black but may have white, orange, gray, or red coloration. Some bats, like the spotted bats, have white facial markings.

Dentition

Blood-sucking vampire bats possess 20 teeth, while insect-eating bats have 38 teeth. Robust lower jaws and longer canines characterize bats chewing on hard-shelled insects. Fruit-eating bats possess cheek-teeth cusps adapted for crushing while nectar-feeding bats possess long canines and minimized cheek-teeth.

Wings

Bats’ wings are much thinner, and they have more bones when compared to bird wings. The surface of the wings has touch-sensitive receptors, while the patagium membrane has nerves, elastic fibers, blood vessels, muscles, and connective tissues.

Distribution

Aside from the Antarctic, the Arctic, and some isolated oceanic islands, bats are vastly distributed worldwide and especially abundant in the tropics. About 45 bat species have been discovered in the US alone, while approximately 100 species are present in West Africa.

Where is Bats’ Natural Habitat?

Depending on the season, bats can live in different habitats, ranging from mountains to deserts and seasides. Bats need suitable roosts, which they find in foliage, crevices, human-made structures, and hollows. Megabats generally roost in trees.

What’s the Lifespan of Bats?

In their natural habitat, the average lifespan of these flying mammals is less than 20 years. Six bat species in the wild, including the lesser mouse-eared bat, Brandt’s bat, the Indian flying fox, the little brown bat, the greater horseshoe bat, and the brown long-eared bat, have been found living for more than 30 years.

Scientists, in 2006, discovered a tiny bat in Siberia. The small bat’s lifespan was documented to have been the longest, living up to 41 years.

What Do Bats Eat?

Most megabats are mostly frugivores that eat pollen, fruits, and nectar. Most microbats are sharp insectivores, and they eat flies, moths, mosquitoes, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, termites, bees, mayflies, and caddisflies.

These insectivorous bats eat more than 120 percent of their weight, while frugivorous bats consume more than twice their body weight. Much food is consumed to compensate for energy lost during flight.

Bat species like the fringe-lipped bat hunt for frogs, greater bulldog bat hunt for fish, and greater noctule bat eat birds. Other species, like the white-winged vampire bats and the hairy-legged bats, feed on the blood of birds and mammals.

Behavior

• Bats use their larynx to produce ultrasonic sounds through their mouth and sometimes the nose. They use these sounds to create echoes that bats use to get a detailed view of their environment. They also use this method to detect and identify their prey.
• Most megabats are crepuscular or diurnal, while microbats are naturally nocturnal mammals.
• Bats like the Mexican free-tailed bats dwell in colonies, while others, like the silver-haired bats, live in isolation.
• In temperate regions, some microbat species migrate hundreds of kilometers to dens, where they can hibernate during winter. Other bats enter a state of minimal activity (torpor) in winter. Some bats return to their caves to hibernate for almost half a year.
• They give off low-frequency calls to attract mates and to locate roost partners to protect resources. When bats aren’t flying, they roost by banging themselves inside from their legs. Some bats can crawl funny when they are on the ground.
• Bats can conduct heat better than other mammals. Since their wings have blood vessels that give off heat when extended, babes commonly wrap around their bodies when they want to rest. To stay insulated, they give room for a layer of air.

Adaptations

• The membranes of bat wings are so thin and fragile that they help them to maneuver meticulously and fly with more lift and less drag.
• The leading edges of the wings of nectar- and pollen-eating bats are so sharp that they form vortices, providing lift during flight.
• They possess ankle joints that bats can bend, allowing the wings’ trailing edge to curve downwards, allowing them to clamber up and hang in caves and on trees. Bats can lock their tendons when they are roosting.
• Studies have found a respiratory system in bats specially designed to handle the demands of their energy-draining flight, which needs a steady oxygen supply.
• Bats like tube-lipped nectar bats possess long, extensible tongues that are layer with fine bristles, helping the bats to feed on the juice of flowering plants.
• Bat ears are so sensitive to the slightest noises made by tymbalate insects, moths, and ground-dwelling earwigs and centipedes. The ridges on their ears’ inner surface help bats focus, identify echolocation signals and target other sounds that prey make.

Reproduction and Mating

Bats may have monogamous (males have one mating partner at a time), polygynous (males have multiple mating female partners), and promiscuous (both males and females have multiple mating partners) mating systems depending on the bat species.

Vampire, pipistrelle, and noctule bats have numerous mating partners, while the little Mexican free-tailed and brown bats are promiscuous.

Some monogamous bats include the yellow-winged bat and the spectral. In temperate regions, bats mate in early autumn and late summer, while tropical bats mate in the dry season. After copulation, males leave a vaginal plug behind.

Some female bat species display delayed fertilization. This means the sperm is stored in their reproductive tract, and fertilization won’t happen till spring, many months after mating.

Other bat species have delayed implantation, which implies that the eggs stay free in the female’s reproductive tract, where birthing is delayed until favorable conditions are found for the care of baby bats.

Conservation

Bats are hunted or eaten for food in countries across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Bats are also threatened by pressure damage caused by wind turbines.

Active organizations like Bat Conservation International create awareness of the ecological importance of bats and the threats they face.

In the United Kingdom, all bat species are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Acts, meaning harming any bat is a punishable offense. The Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 was implemented in Sarawak, Malaysia, to safeguard all bats from being eaten or hunted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Interesting Facts About Bats

Nectar-feeding bats are natural pollinators, and more than 500 fruit trees and flowering plants depend on bat pollination for the dispersal of seeds and pollens.

Microbats use the sensitivity of the earth’s magnetic field, known as magnet reception, to differentiate the south from the north. This sensitivity is useful during long-distance travel.

Bats symbolize darkness in European cultures. It also means evil, death, and witchcraft. The native Americans, like the Apache, Cherokee, and Creek, see the bat as a trickster spirit.

Farmers benefit from insectivorous bats as they help to reduce the population of farm pests by minimizing the use of pesticides.

Bat guano or dung, rich in potassium, nitrogen, and phosphate, is an efficient fertilizer.

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