Spinning Tales About Bats

Bats, those creatures of the night!  Relentlessly, literature, movies, and cultures stigmatize these weird-looking, mostly nocturnal mammals.  For example, Dracula transforms into a bat.  Some Native Americans label them trickster spirits.  Nevertheless, in China, they symbolize happiness.

Meet the real bats!   After rodents, they are the second largest order of mammals.  Species number around 1,000; Florida claims 13 native species.   Reproduction cycles are controlled by the female to coincide with food availability.  Mostly, a female yields one pup yearly.  Adult size varies from that of a bumblebee to a Canadian goose, wing to wing.  Lifespan exceeds 30 years.  Except for colder regions like the Arctic, bats dwell worldwide.

Some bats are solitary.  However, thousands colonize and hang upside down by clawed toes from cave ceilings and walls to roost (rest) during the day, safe from predators.  (Bracken Cave in Texas—an estimated 20 million.)  Spectacular are evening mass exits!  Caves are also utilized for hibernation.  With habitats disappearing, some bats are roosting in abandoned mines. 

Bat drawing by Hailey Scalia, age 8

The only mammals capable of true flight are bats.  Some fly 40 miles per hour and cover 50 miles nightly.  Dives are spectacular!  Many migrate from Canada to Mexico.  Bat wings are thinner than bird wings—better maneuverability.  These membranous wings have arms, long fingers, and little thumbs.  Regrowth of membrane repairs tears.

Most bats are insectivores.  One bat may consume hundreds of insects in one hour.  Others may ingest pollen, nectar, fish, blood, and even other bats.   Younglings nurse on milk.  Sharp teeth facilitate insect and fruit penetration.  Tube-lipped nectar bats display the longest tongues of mammals, relative to size.  After deep-flower probing, such a tongue coils up inside the rib cage. 

Vampire bats are native to Latin America.  The common species lick (do not suck) blood from sleeping mammals like cattle and occasionally humans.  Only a tablespoon is drawn.  Bat saliva contains Draculin, the anticoagulant named after Dracula, to keep the victim’s blood from clotting.  Fortunately, less than 1% of bats carry rabies. 

The ultrasonic shrieks of nocturnal bats (typically not audible to humans) echo off objects.  Unique ears and noses assist in echo interpretation to locate prey and navigate—echolocation, natural radar.

Blind as a bat?  Bats dart at night, seemingly blind.  However, they can see, night or day.  Vision varies from poor to excellent.  And bats do not entangle in hair—they dive towards insects surrounding people’s heads. 

Let us go to bat for bats!  They control insects.  They pollinate.  Guano (feces) is a great fertilizer—also used for gunpowder during the Civil War.  Furthermore, bats are vital for hibernation, sonar, and blood-clotting research.  Beneficial creatures!