Bats are the birds of the night. They sleep in the day and come out at night to feed on flower nectar, fruits and insects. But unlike birds Bats belong to the mammal family. This means that they have hair, warm blood and feed their babies with milk.
The closest relative in the mammal family to the Bats are the flying Lemurs of Asia who jump from tree to tree using their webbed hands as gliding wings.
Bats have a very similar skeleton to small monkeys but their shoulder and collar are fixed together to make a stronger chest to help them fly. Bats have fingers just like us but skin joins them together like the webbed feet of a duck. This helps them to glide around and fly to find food and a home.
Bat poo is very valuable stuff. It is collected in caves for millions of years where Bats lived and used as a tea to feed plants. But just like anything else that humans take from the earth, too much has been taken so it needs time to build back up again.
Bats are not actually blind but their eyesight at night is not as good as other night hunters such as Cats or Owls. To make up for this Bats use Sonar Navigation (or echo location). So when the Bats fly around at night they make a sound that hits objects and bounces back to them to tell the Bat what is where and the direction to go for food. As humans we cannot hear the Bats high frequency calls but special sonar radios allow us to tune in and hear them at night. Different bats make sounds at different frequencies and make certain noises when they have found food.
The reason why we always see photos of bats with their mouths open is that when they are out at night hunting they are constantly making sounds to find objects and prey.
There are around a thousand species of Bats living in the world they range from 4cm to the giant golden crowned flying fox which has a wingspan of around 1.5m.
Bats like woodlands, forests, caves and other natural areas. They live in big groups called roosts and can live up to 20 years if they are healthy.
The Bat Conservation Trust does a lot to help are winged friends by doing walks and talks at night to help people understand these amazing creatures.
Did you know that a single bat can eat up to 3000 insects in a night?
Have a look at their website for more information and find out how you can get involved. http://www.bats.org.uk/
Here you can find great leaflets on all of the common UK bat species.
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Bats have a very similar skeleton to small monkeys but their shoulder and collar are fixed together to make a stronger chest to help them fly. Bats have fingers just like us but skin joins them together like the webbed feet of a duck. This helps them to glide around and fly to find food and a home.
The reason why we always see photos of bats with their mouths open is that when they are out at night hunting they are constantly making sounds to find objects and prey.
