What Are Bats?

Bats are mammals that are found in a multitude of regions in a wide array of sizes and colours.  They are unique in that they are the only mammals capable of flight – there are ‘flying’ squirrels and opossums, but their airborne movement is technically gliding, not flying independently.  Bats are nocturnal creatures of a gentle nature that have long been the subject of stories, myths, and legends that have, in some cases, made people unreasonably fearful of them.

Many people who become familiar with bats before they come across any negative lore find them to be rather beautiful and very unique creatures.  Others refer to bats as flying rodents which does the bat a disservice because they are not, in fact, rodents.  Bats actually belong to the biological order, Chiroptera, not Rodentia.  

Bats are nocturnal animals that seek shelter or a safe, out of the way place in which to roost during the day.  They emerge at dusk, just as the sky is turning a dark deep blue to hunt for food.  It is a common misconception that bats like to feast on blood.  In fact, most bats are insectivores, and those that aren’t feed on fruit, seeds, and nuts.  A very small number of bat species have adapted their diet to include small mammals and occasionally will feed on larger ones.  Another myth about bats is that they are common carriers and spreaders of the rabies virus.  Although they can contract rabies, they are not a major reservoir of the virus although the illness will make them clumsy meaning that infected bats will accidentally come in contact with humans more than healthy bats normally would.

Bats are distinguished by their leathery wings that stretch across their forelimbs, and sometimes part of their hind limbs, and their small hind legs.  Built primarily for flight, bats are not particularly comfortable or graceful on the ground as their legs are not muscled to bear their weight.  Bats have teeth and claws that they use for hunting.  As most mammals do, bats give birth to live young.  They will either leave their babies in the safety of the roost at night or they may be carried along for the hunt.  Young bats are usually fully independent within a few weeks of birth.  If healthy, bats can live to about 20 years old.

Despite having some negative press over the years, bats have a number of intriguing qualities.  It is a well-known fact that bats use echolocation to obtain information about their environment.  Equally widely known is that bats sleep upside down.  Less well known are the reasons for this.  The position allows a distinct launching advantage and bat’s talons close naturally when they are upside down.  Also, most predators don’t look underneath things for living creatures, so hanging from the bottom of a branch is a very safe place to be.

Any of various nocturnal flying mammals of the order Chiroptera, having membranous wings that extend from the forelimbs to the hind limbs or tail and anatomical adaptations for echolocation, by which they navigate and hunt prey.

Bats are any of an order of nocturnal  placental flying mammals with forelimbs modified to form wings. There are a number of varieties.  The ones I am familiar with eat bugs.  Bats get a bad rap!

en.wikipedia.org
A bat is also used to play baseball en.wikipedia.org

BATS

The most abundant mammals in the rainforest are not large ground-dwelling creatures, but bats. The tropics have the greatest variety of bats, and accordingly, the most diverse mammalian group of the tropical rainforest is bats, making up over 50 percent of mammal species. Bats range in size from the giant flying foxes, with wingspans of six feet (1.8 m), to the tiny bumblebee bat of Thailand, the world's smallest mammal, weighing less than an American penny. Equally diverse are the feeding habits of tropical bats, which include fruit, nectar, blood, and carnivorous feeders; and the places bats choose for shelter.

Bats are almost like birds that sleep during the day and hunt for bugs like mosquito's at night time