Bat Facts
There are more than a thousand species of bats—nearly one quarter of all mammal species are bats! Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly.
Bats can be found in most temperate and tropical regions around the world. They are part of nature's balancing act—some keep insect populations in check, and others ensure future generations of plants.
Bats are in the order Chiroptera, which means "hand wing." There are two suborders—Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera, megabats and microbats.
Megachiroptera
Megabats
live only in the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Australia, and eat fruit and flower pollen and nectar. These bats, sometimes referred to as flying foxes, are important to many plants because they distribute seeds and pollinate flowers. Africa's baobab trees depend solely on bats for pollination, and in turn, some species depend on the baobab for food and shelter.
Microchiroptera
Microbats
include the majority of bats and can be found all over the world. Most microbats eat insects, and are, in fact, the primary predators of night-flying insects. Little brown bats can catch 600 mosquitoes in an hour. Large bat colonies can consume billions of mosquitoes in a single season. Because bats eat agricultural pests, some people encourage bats to live in the area, instead of using harmful pesticides.
Friends in Need
Hundreds of plants in the Old World, which depend on bats for pollination and seed dispersal, are used by people for food, medicine, fiber, timber, and more. Bats also help maintain wild varieties of many crop plants, including bananas, peaches, avocados, and cashews. Additionally, bats have been credited with reforesting cleared land by spreading seeds. Finally, their droppings are collected and used as nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Echolocation
Many bats have a remarkable way of navigating and hunting at night. They make high-frequency sounds, whose echoes bounce back, enabling a bat to make a mental map, locate tiny prey, and avoid obstacles as thin as a hair. All bats can see, however bats have developed the use of echolocation to find food at night.
Home and Family
Bats live in colonies ranging from just a few individuals to a few million. They make their homes in caves, animal burrows, flowers, termite nests, and buildings. Tent-making bats cause leaves to collapse and then roost underneath. Some bats, including the hoary bat, migrate, while others hibernate during the winter.
Most bats have only one young per year. They typically live longer than most mammals of the same size, between ten and 20 years. Some live for more than 30 years.
More Bits About Bats
The world's smallest mammal is Thailand's bumblebee bat, weighing in at about two grams. The largest bat, the Indian flying fox, has a wingspan of up to six feet.
More than 40 species live in the United States and Canada. Most of them are insectivores.
More than 200 species of bats are listed as vulnerable or endangered on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.
Fossils of bats similar to today's bats date back about 50 million years. The first primates appeared just a few million years earlier.
Bloodsuckers? Not quite. Three species of vampire bats do feed exclusively on mammal and bird blood. A substance in their saliva prevents blood from coagulating, allowing bats to lap it up for as long as 30 minutes. These Latin American bats have been known to care for orphans and regurgitate to feed family members.
Please note: There are no bats at the Zoo.
