Surprising Facts about Bats

Many people associate bats with dark things such as vampires, caves, witches, and Halloween. While it is true that bats sometimes live in caves and almost always feed at night, they are actually gentle, shy creatures that are incredibly helpful to humans. Below are some interesting but little known facts about bats.

A single bat can eat 600 or more insects in one hour. Bats consume huge amounts of flies, gnats, mosquitoes, beetles, and cockroaches, as well as other insects. Without the natural pest control that bats provide, literally tons of pests would be left to destroy crops and spread disease.

Bats are slow to reproduce. Mothers usually give birth to a single pup per year. Female bats are caring mothers; they typically nurse their young for six months, and often coo to their pups as a human mother coos to her baby. Even though pups stay in a nursery which may contain millions of other pups, the mother bats can locate their own babies by their particular squeal and scent.

Most bats do not drink blood. Of the more than 1100 species of bats, only three feed on blood. Two of these species of bats will only drink the blood of birds. The third type, known as the common vampire bat, will drink the blood of cows and other large animals, but only if the victim is asleep. These vampire bats are afraid of moving animals.

Some seeds will not sprout unless they have passed through the digestive system of a bat. Fruit bats spread millions of seeds every year from the ripe fruit they eat, thus helping many types of plants and trees to grow and bear more fruit. Ninety-five percent of tropical rainforest reforestation is a result of this seed dispersal from bats.

Like honeybees, some species of bats pollinate plants. In fact, some types of plants would not survive without the bats that feed on their nectar and pollen. Avocados, bananas, peaches, mangos, figs, and dates are all pollinated by bats, and would have a hard time reproducing without this service.

The largest bat colony in the world is Bracken Bat Cave in San Antonio, Texas. Twenty to forty million bats live in the cave at any one time. The combined body heat of all the bats raises the temperature from 68 degrees to a steamy108 degrees.

Most bats are smaller than your thumb, but a few are very large. The smallest type of bat is the Butterfly Bat, having a wingspan of about five inches and weighing less than a penny. The biggest bat is the flying fox, having a wingspan of nearly six feet and weighing approximately three pounds.

Bat waste, called guano, is useful to humans. These nutrient–rich droppings are harvested to make some of the world’s best fertilizer. The chemicals from guano are sometimes used in laundry detergent and have even been used to make gunpowder.

Bats have a built-in sonar system that allows them to navigate by sound, rather than sight. This echolocation system is so sensitive that bats are able to detect an object as fine as a strand of hair or the footsteps of an insect.

Because of our folklore and superstitions, bats are often thought to be spooky and evil. In fact, they are some of the most beneficial creatures around. Many types of bats are considered keystone species because they are so vital to the survival of other plants and animals. Bats are fascinating creatures with many surprisingly beneficial habits.