Recently I've had to write a
couple of article about white nose syndrome, a fungal disease that
has killed 5.5 million North American bats since 2006. That's bad
news, because bats eat a lot of crop-munching insects – a million
bats can eat between 660 and 1320 metric tons of insects per year.
Collectively, North American bats are worth three billion dollars per
year to the agricultural industry. In South Central Texas alone, bats
provide $740,000 a year in pest control.
Contrary to popular belief,
bats do not carry rabies or eat people. Bats clean themselves constantly, like cats. They can live for up to 40 years,
depending on species, and have one pup per year, making them the
slowest-reproducing animals for their size.
1) Kitti's hog-nosed bat,
also known as the bumblebee bat, is the smallest bat species at 1.1
to 1.3 inches (29 to 33 mm) long and weighing 0.071 ounces (2 grams).
It's contending for World's Smallest Mammal with the Etruscan shrew,
which can be lighter at 1.2 grams, but may be longer at 1.4 to 2.1
inches (36 to 53 mm).
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| Poser. |
The bumblebee bat is
reddish-brown or grey in color, with a “distinctive swollen,
pig-like snout.” It lives in Thailand and Burma, in limestone
caverns along rivers. It's considered vulnerable to extinction,
although these bats can be hard to count, since many of them live in
hard-to-reach areas.
2) The hoary bat has a
funny-looking little face.
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| Look at that funny little face. |
It lives in North and South
America, as well as Hawaii and Galapagos. It is normally 5 to 5.7
inches (13 to 14.5 cm) long and weighs 0.9 ounces (26 grams), with a
wingspan of 15.7 inches (40 cm). It is covered with fur, expect for
the undersides of its wings. The fur is dark brown, with frosted
tips. The hoary bat is a loner that prefers to roost in trees, and
feeds on moths. These bats will migrate from Canada as far south as
Bermuda, and because they like to roost in shipping crates, will
sometimes be found in strange places.
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| WTF Where am I??? Put me down!!! |
3) The Honduran white bat looks
like a cotton ball with wings.
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| See? |
This is another small bat –
it's 1.5 to 1.8 inches (3.7 to 4.7 cm) long. It lives in Nicaragua,
Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama and eats fruit.
The Honduran white bat is a
tent-making bat. It cuts the veins of the Heliconia leaf, which makes
the sides fold down around the midrib to form a tent-like structure.
Colonies of up to six bats will roost inside this tent. Each colony
will usually have only one male. Their tents are usually about six
feet (1.8 meters) from the ground, and the bats will remain
completely hidden when still. There are 15 species of tent-making
bats in Latin America, and three species in India and Asia.
4) The yellow-winged bat is a
false vampire bat native to central Africa. It is 2.3 inches to 3.2
inches (5.8 cm to 8 cm) long, and weighs 1 to 1.3 ounces (28 to 36
grams). It lives throughout Central Africa, and feeds on hard-shelled
and soft-bodied insects, unlike other false vampire bats, which
typically feed on small animals like mice, lizards and other bats.
Its wings are yellow.
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| Also, its face and ears. |
5) The Ghost-faced bat also has
a mustache.
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| Mustache! |
The Ghost-faced bat's
“mustache” actually consists of flaps of skin that hang around
its lips and chin. It lives in Central America, Texas, Trinidad and
Tobago, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. It's reddish to dark brown in
color, and molts from June to September. They feed on large moths and
roost in large colonies, although, unlike most species, they like to
maintain about 6 inches (15 cm) of personal space when roosting.
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| "The other bats make fun of my mustache." |
6) Vampire bats feed on blood.
There are three species of vampire bat – the white-winged vampire
bat, the hairy-legged vampire bat, and the common vampire bat – and
they live in Central and South America. Differences between the
vampire bat species have led to taxonomists classifying each one in
its own genus. The three species still share more similarities with
one another than they do with other bats, leading to the belief that
they share a common ancestor.
Vampire bats live in
colonies made up of females and “resident” and “non-resident”
males. Depending on species, there may be a strict social order to
which the males in a colony must adhere. Both resident and
non-resident males will usually mate with the females in a colony.
Females remain with the colony of their birth, leaving only if their
mothers relocate or die. Males will leave their birth colonies at the
age of two, sometimes after being kicked out by the colony's resident
males.
Vampire bats have strong
family bonds, and will adopt an orphaned pup, unlike other species of
bats. These bats will only survive about two days without feeding. If
some members of the colony haven't fed on a particular night, the
others will regurgitate blood to feed them.
The common vampire bat feeds
on the blood of mammals, while the other two species feed on birds.
When the common vampire bat finds a likely blood donor, it lands and
approaches on foot. These bats can travel on foot at up to 4.9 miles
(7.9 km) per hour. The bat uses its teeth to make a small cut, and
then licks up the blood from its wound.
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| Like this. ~ Sandstein |
Its saliva contains
anticoagulants that keep the blood flowing from the wound. The drug
desmoteplase, used to facilitate circulation in stroke patients, was
developed from studying vampire bat saliva.
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| You're welcome. |
