This is the International Year of the Bat, and it is appropriate to get to know these nocturnal creatures. Did you know that without bats you would have less food on your plate? This is because, bats spread seeds far and wide, resulting in more food and shade. Bats also eat harmful insects and rats thereby reducing vectors that spread these diseases. The only mammals that can fly, they come from both tropical and temperate regions. Mostly black or brown, they can also be bright orange, yellow, silver, white, grey and some also have spots and stripes on their body and wings. A bat's home is called a roost. They do not make nests like a bird or burrow like a snake.
There are two kinds of bats — fruit bats and insect bats. The insectivorous bat family is called Michroc hiroptera . Micro means small and they eat insects, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish and even other smaller bats. They echolate (the use of echoes to detect objects and other creatures) to navigate and hence have modified ears. Fruit bats' family is called Megachiroptera meaning large. There are 14 kinds of fruit bats in South Asia alone. Fruit bats are also called flying foxes. They usually feed on fruits and smaller insects.
What you can do
Save forests
Do not disturb trees, caves, buildings that have bats
Do not cut trees that have roosts
Identify bat colonies in your school and observe without disturbing them.
Observe bats in temples and other sacred places and talk to your friends and relatives appreciating their usefulness.
Start bat clubs in your school
Avoid using chemicals in your gardens. Some insecticides may harm bats that naturally get rid of pests, insects that trouble us.
Itty bitty batty bits
The largest bat is the Giant Flying Fox, which has a wingspan of six feet and weighs about one kg.
Bats live in colonies called roosts. A mother bat produces one pup a year.
Bats have muscles and circulatory systems that are well adapted to make their upside-down life easy.
Insectivorous bats use a range of ultrasonic sound to detect food and obstacles.
All bats are not blind. Fruit bats have good vision.
Bats do not attack humans. People feel uneasy when they swoop down to catch insects.
Like cats, bats are clean animals. They groom themselves several times a day.
Bats are not pests. In fact they help us by controlling a lot of insect pests.
Bats are not a bad omen. In some parts of Asia and Europe they are considered lucky.
Bats are important to the forests as they pollinate and disperse seeds.
Vampire bats are not found in South Asia. They are only found in Latin America.
In total darkness, bats can detect everything by echolocation- even objects as thin as human hair.
Like cats, male bats also mark their territories and themselves with strong smelling urine.
Bats live in narrow crevices and bamboo and have flat skulls.
Did You Know?
Bats belong to the order “Chiroptera which means, “hand wing” in Greek.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly. Other flying mammals only glide.
Bats have been in this world for over 50 million years.
Bats are found throughout the world except in the Artic, Antarctica and some isolated islands.
Some bats are known to live up to 30 years.
Among the nearly 1001 species of bats in the world 123 species are found in South Asia.
Of the 450 mammal species in South Asia 123 (20 per cent) are bats.
The smallest bat in the world is the bumble bee bat that can fit into a match box.
To know more:
Contact: zooreach@vsnl.com, www.zooreach.org
www.chesterzoo.org.uk: Keeps one of the best bat exhibits in its artificially created caves and trees.
www.batcon.org: Bat Conservation International (BCI) is an organisation in the U.S. which devotes itself to saving bats around the world. The Chinese revere bats as symbols of good luck and happiness.
Walk at dusk
The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in Chennai recently organised a bat walk. Wildlife enthusiasts also got to see other reptiles, trees and birds in a 30-minute walk to a village that hosts a banyan tree housing a colony of bats. The walk, undertaken at dusk enabled one to see bats as they were setting out for their hunt.
A few years ago there were hundreds and one could hardly see the gaps between the branches. But with each passing day their numbers are decreasing. Today, there are just over a hundred bats.
The people of the village have taken to keeping bat boxes. They have also stopped allowing hunting and killing of bats and make sure they keep noise to a minimum. They do not allow bursting crackers and intrusion. Bat guano or bat dropping is good fertilizer and the villagers have realised the benefits of having bat colonies closer to where they live. Bat droppings have another use besides spreading seeds — it piles up and makes a home for many small animals. The many animals and bat droppings that grow in bat droppings are an ecosystem by itself. Substances from bat droppings are used to make laundry soap and other products.
