All About Bats Website

Welcome to the About Bats information website. We have several articles all about bats including:

Some Amazing Bat Facts

Many people have misconceptions about bats. In this article we will explore some of those and find out how amazing facts on bats really are. 

The first misconception is that bats are related to the rodent family and that they are basically “flying mice”.  This is simply not true; in fact, bats are a group all their own named ‘Chiroptera’, which means hand-wing.  Bats are closer to groups like primates and lemurs versus the rodents.   

The next fact about bats that people are often wrong about is they think bats are blind. The old saying goes ‘as blind as a bat’ but in fact, many bats actually have very good vision.  They can see almost as well as us and while their sight is definitely better in the darkness, they can still see pretty well. Some bats even see in color!  But to see in the dark, like inside a cave, bats use “Echolocation”. These are very high frequency vocalizations similar to radar that the bat emits as it flies. 

Not all bats are vampire bats, though we hear about those most. While many people believe that bats are vampires by nature, out of the 900 species of bats, there are only three vampire bats in the entire world.  These three bat species generally stick to Latin America and they do not usually get their blood meal from humans. The remaining species of bats that are all over the world feed off of fruit, nectar, pollen and insects. There are so many types of bats that they make up 1/5 of the world’s mammals!  

Bats usually only have one live young per year? Their slow reproduction makes them vulnerable to extinction.  They also, just like us, feed their young by pectoral breasts until they are old enough to get food for themselves.  The average life-span of a bat is similar to ours as well, as they can live up to forty or fifty years old.  The majority of bats could fit in the palm of your hand! 

A lot of people have no idea that bats do not like the cold weather.  As soon as the weather changes, a lot of bats will migrate to South America and while there are some bats that will simply hibernate until the weather breaks, many bat species migrate and will fly over a thousand miles in order to get to places that are warm. 

The places that you will mainly find a lot of bat species are in some of the warmest parts of the world.  The tropics are fantastic places for bats to live, not only do that have a lot of insects and flowers for their food source, but they are also the perfect climate for these furry little creatures.  Mexico, Hawaii and even California are just a few of the places that many bats can be found.  

A great bat fact is one that makes gardeners and homeowners love them: a single bat can eat up to 600 mosquitoes in just 1 hour!  Almost 40% of American bat species are having a severe decline in populations, for reasons including habitat loss. Providing bats a bat house can help build the populations back up of many bat types that eat crop-damaging insects. Bat houses provide places for bats to roost, hibernate and raise young, and help make up for the dwindling number of natural sites available to them due to human development of their usual habitats. 

Our articles are free for you to copy and distribute. Please give http://www.about-bats.com credit for the article. 

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Bat Guide Book $9.95

This easy-to-use guide is factually, visually, and organizationally superior to any other beginner's guide. Includes: Coverage of all 45 species of bats in the U.S. and Canada, Color tab index for quick reference, brilliant full-color photos of each species, Information about the benefits of bats, Up-to-date range maps, Plans of building a bat house and other ways to attract bats, Details on habitat, bat biology, food preferences, and much more.

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