Bats
Even though Bats belong to the Mammal family, rather than being classified as "birds," I still included them on this website in the spirit of public education and the conservation of this intriguing and highly useful animal. And well, they DO fly!
Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. Their most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammal in the world naturally capable of flight; other mammals, such as flying squirrels and gliding phalangers, can glide for limited distances but are not capable of true sustainable flight. The word Chiroptera can be translated from the Greek words for "hand wing," as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand, with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body.
There are estimated to be about 1,100 species of bats worldwide, accounting for about 20% of all mammal species.
About 70 percent of bats are insectivorous. Most of the remainder feed on fruits and their juices; three bat species eat blood and some prey on vertebrates. These bats include the leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) of central America and South America, and the related bulldog bats (Noctilionidae) that feed on fish. There are at least two known species of bat that feed on other bats: the Spectral Bat or American False Vampire bat and the Ghost Bat of Australia.
Some of the smaller bat species are important pollinators of some tropical flowers. Indeed, many tropical plants are now found to be totally dependent on them, not just for pollination, but for spreading their seeds by eating the resulting fruits. This role explains environmental concerns when a bat is introduced in a new setting. Tenerife provides a recent example with the introduction of the Egyptian bat.
BATS BENEFIT YOUR BACKYARD HABITAT
Bats are an essential part of your backyard eco-system. What’s more, they are fascinating creatures and one of your best friends when it comes to combating insect pests. Bats are indicators of a healthy environment. The more bats, the lower amounts of pesticides being used in the area. Bats help save farmers millions of dollars each year by consuming crop pest insects. They also pollinate flowers and scatter plant seeds. What’s more, bat guano, rich in nitrogen, makes an excellent fertilizer.
More than 40 North American species of bats have been reported using bat houses provided by homeowners. The most common species is the Little Brown Bat. Like its name, this creature is small, and tan to dark brown in color. It can be found throughout the country, as far north as Alaska. The species most commonly uses bat houses for roosts and nurseries and can live up to 30 years.
Nesting:
Bats utilize some sort of shelter all year round; usually roosting and hibernating in attics, caves, bridges, or bat houses. In many bat species, males and females roost in separate nest sites except during mating season – usually the fall or winter for migratory species. The female will store the sperm until spring when ovulation and fertilization occur.
In the spring or early summer the females congregate in large colonies to give birth. Most species will have only one to two “pups” a year. Females feed their young milk so they must consume an even greater quantity of insects. The young bats grow rapidly and are able to fly in about three weeks.
Feeding:
Primarily nocturnal, bats are the #1 predator of night-flying insects. Their diet is varied but usually includes moths, beetles, gnats, crickets and mosquitoes. One bat can consume 600-1000 mosquitoes in an hour eating their own body weight in insects nightly. Although they can see, bats use echolocation to find food. They emit a series of ultrasonic cries through the nose or mouth detecting flying insects by the echoes reflected back.
Small insects may be caught directly in the mouth, but larger ones are often captured by the wing membrane, transferred to the “basket” formed by the hind legs and the interfemoral membrane (the part of the wing membrane between the tail and the hind legs). It is then scooped up to the mouth.
Attracting Bats:
Clearly, the best way to attract these nocturnal wonders is to erect a bat house. A typical bat house can hold a colony of up to 300 bats! Bat houses help bats by providing roosting space when natural roosting sites are scarce. In addition, your bird bath or other garden water features can help support a bat population. Bats need water like any other animal and water attracts insects which in turn will attract bats.Offer a much-needed home to bats and you'll have nature's own flying insect control at work for you. Those nuisance bugs will disappear!
Reproduction
Mother bats usually have only one offspring per year. A baby bat is referred to as a pup. Pups are usually left in the roost when they are not nursing. However, a newborn bat can cling to the fur of the mother like pouch and be transported, although they soon grow too large for this. It would be difficult for an adult bat to carry more than one young, but normally only one young is born. Bats often form nursery roosts, with many females giving birth in the same area, be it a cave, a tree hole, or a cavity in a building. Mother bats are able to find their young in huge colonies of millions of other pups. Pups have even been seen to feed on other mothers' milk if their mother is dry. Only the mother cares for the young, and there is no continuous partnership with male bats.
The ability to fly is congenital, but after birth the wings are too small to fly. Young microbats become independent at the age of 6 to 8 weeks, megabats not until they are four months old. At the age of two years bats are sexually mature.
Habits and behavior
Bats vary in social structure, with some bats leading a solitary life and others living in caves colonized by more than a million bats.
The fission-fusion social structure is seen among several species of bats. The fusion part is all the individuals in a roosting area. The fission part is the breaking apart and mixing of subgroups by switching roosts with bats, ending up with bats in different trees and often with different roostmates.
Studies also show that bats make all kinds of sounds to communicate with others. Scientists in the field have listened to bats and have been able to identify some sounds with some behavior bats will make right after the sounds are made.
Bat Houses
Many people put up bat houses to attract bats just as many people put up bird houses.
Reasons for this vary, but mostly center around the fact that bats are the primary nocturnal insectivores in most if not all ecologies.
Bat houses can made from scratch, made from kits, or bought ready made. Plans for bat houses exist on many web sites, as well as guidelines for designing your own bat house.
Copyright: Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.org
Relevant Websites: Amazing Bat Facts ... Bat Publications (for those of you who are seriously into researching bats -- this website is the one for you) ... U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services - Introduction to Bats ... Bat Conservation International ... Children Pages: Learning About Bats (AVKids) ... "The Only Flying Mammal!": Thematic Resource for Teachers and Students - Contra Costa County Office of Education ... Batty About Bats Kids Page ... 9 Big Bat Facts ... Amazing Facts About Bats ... Aliens Explore Earth: Bats - articles on a number of different bats, as well as echolocation, written for middle school students ... Alien Earth: Echolocation ... Benefits to People ... Bat Rescue ...Bats: Creatures of the Night ... African Wildlife Foundation
Species:
African Yellow-winged Bat: Walker's Mammals of the World
Big Brown Bats: Alien Earth: Description, Range, Feeding ... Mating / Enemies ... Big Brown Bat Coloring Page (Connecticut Dept. of Environmental Protection) ... Nature.ca ... Sevilleta ... Kentucky Bat Working Group ... The Mammals of Texas ... University of Michigan
Black Flying Foxes: Our Wildlife ... Lyssaviral infection and lead poisoning in black flying foxes from Queensland ... Australian Bat Lyssavirus Infection in a Captive Juvenile Black Flying Fox ... My Bat Page (good photos - some dead links, but still worthwhile visiting) ... Doctors Gully ... Bat Publications (for those of you who are seriously into researching bats - this website is the one for you) ... NPWS Nature & Conservation - Threatened species conservation
Desert Bats: Desert USA 
Eastern Pipistrelle (Bat): Alien World
Egyptian Fruit Bats
Evening Bats
Flying Foxes: Flying Foxes in Australia ... Bats or Flying Foxes? ... RSPCA response to the killing of flying-foxes in the MBG. 21st April.
Ray Lord ... Flying Foxes of America
Free-tailed Bats (Family Molossidae): Bats of San Diego County: Tadarida brasilensis mexicana - Mexican Freetailed Bat ... Nyctinomops femorosaccus - Pocketed
Freetailed Bat ...Nyctinomops macrotis - Big Freetailed Bat ... Eumops perotis - Western Mastiff Bat
Fruit Bats (Cynopterus Brachyotic) ... Dog-faced Fruit Bat ... Short-nosed Fruit Bat
Ghost Bats
Greater Mouse-eared Bats: Avon Bat Club
Grey Bat: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Species Account
Grey-headed Flying Fox: Anu-Edu ... Australia's Flying Foxes at a Crossroad: Grey-headed flying foxes are facing a crossroad between legal protection and continued wanton destruction
Hawaiian Hoary Bats: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Hoary Bats: Alien World
Indiana Bat
Jamaican Leaf-nosed Bats
Keen's Myotis (Bat): Alien Earth
Little Brown Bat (commonest): Alien Earth: Habitat,
Description, Hibernating ... Benefits to Man, Enemies, Mating, Life Span
Leaf-nosed Bats (Family Phyllostomidae): Bats of San Diego County: Macrotus californicus - California
Leaf-nosed Bat ... Choeronycteris mexicana - Mexican
Long-tongued Bat
Mexican Free-tailed Bats
Pallid Bat: Royal BC Museum ... Bat Conservation International ... University of Michigan
Plain-nosed Bats (Family Vespertilionidae): Bats of San Diego County: Myotis yumanensis - Yuma Myotis ... Myotis evotis - Long-Eared Myotis ... Myotis thysanodes - Fringed Myotis ... Myotis californicus - California Myotis ... Myotis leibii - Small-Footed Myotis ... Myotis lucifugus - Little Brown Bat ... Myotis volans - Long-legged Myotis ... Pipistrellus hesperus - Western Pipistrelle ... Eptesicus fuscus - Big Brown Bat ... Lasiurus borealis - Red Bat ... Lasiurus cinereus - Hoary Bat ... Lasiurus ega - Southern Yellow Bat ... Euderma maculatum - Spotted Bat ... Plecotus townsendii - Townsend's Big-Eared Bat ... Antrozous pallidus - Pallid Bat ... Lasionycteris noctivagans - Silver-haired Bat
Red Bats: Alien Earth: Description, Hunting, Habitat ... Enemies, Life Cycle, Overwintering
Rodrigues Flying Fox
Silver-haired Bats: Alien Earth
Spectacled Flying Fox
Spotted Bats
Straw-colored Fruit Bats
Vampire
Bats: MaxPages ... Animal Bytes ... University of Michigan
