Bat

The only mammal that can fly is the bat. The bat's wing anatomically looks a lot like the human hand. Roughly 1,000 kinds of bats can be found around the world. As a matter of fact, bats make up a fourth of all the species of mammals on earth. Some of the larger bats have a wingspan of six feet and the smallest bats bodies are only about an inch long. Most bats live longer than most other mammals that are their size. Thirty years is the longest lifespan known of a bat in the wild and it was a little brown bat.

Bats are a large help in natural pest control since 70 percent of bats devour insects. Other bats eat fruit, nectar, fish and the carnivorous bats prey on small mammals, frogs, lizards and birds. Of course, there is also the most distinctive kind of bats, the blood sucking vampire bats that are in South America. Some bat populations are in the millions but others are dangerously low or even endangered. You can find bats almost every place worldwide except the very cold polar areas and the intense hot deserts. In order to survive the winter, some kinds of bats migrate, some hibernate, and still others go into torpor, which is the way they adjust to hypothermia which can last anywhere from a couple of hours to a few months. http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/bats.php#

The bat may actually be the most misconstrued animals in the United States, even though as clients of large amounts of insects, they happen to be among the most advantageous. As seed spreaders, fruit bats complete an exceptionally significant duty. There are also pollinator bats such as the nectar eating bats that are federally listed as being endangered, such as the lesser long-nosed (Leptonycteris curasoae yerbabuenae) and greater Mexican long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris nivalis).There are many plant varieties that actually count on bats for the work of pollination. http://www.fws.gov/endangered/bats/bats.htm

There is a myth about the fact that all bats have rabies. This is absolutely not true. It has been determined that less than 1/2 of 1% of bats actually carry the rabies virus. Additionally, bats that are rabid are hardly ever antagonistic. There are less than forty individuals in the United States that are known to have gotten rabies from a bat in the last forty years.

Myth: Bats get tangled in the hair of people.

Fact: Even though bats may sometimes fly closely to a person's face while trying to catch insects, they do not get stuck in people's hair. The reason is that the bats have an ability called echolocate. This means that their ability to avoid objects is so accurate that a bat can even avoid things that are no wider than a piece of thread.

Myth: Bats will suck your blood.

Fact: There are actually vampire bats that feed on blood, however, these amazing bats are located in Central America, South America and Mexico. Vampire bats feed on the blood of warm blooded animals, for instance, horses, birds and cattle. These bats do not suck the blood. The bat first makes a very small cut in the skin of a sleeping animal with their razor sharp teeth and then lap up the blood that runs from the wound. The bat's saliva has a anticoagulant in it so the animal's blood does not clot until the bat is finished. The bat also an anesthetic in its saliva that lessens the possibility that the animal will even feel the bite. The vampire bat only needs about two tablespoonfuls of blood every day, so the prey animal's blood loss is minimal and it hardly ever causes any harm. http://www.fws.gov/endangered/bats/miscon.htm

• Amazon.com: Bat Merchandise

• CafePress.com: Bat T-Shirts and Gifts

• Barnes & Noble: Bat Books

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