How do bats live?

The bat is one of those amazing creatures that nature has bestowed on us. It is the only mammal with the ability to fly on its own, expanding its wings and managing to take flight in no time. If you want to know much more about the bat, we invite you to continue reading, you will know all the information you need to know about these mammals, as well as curious facts that you never thought you would get to know.

The body of these animals is usually completely covered with very short hair that serves to protect them from humidity and cold. Then it has membranes of skin that come out from the front legs to the back. The toes of the front legs are extremely thin and extend through the membrane, helping in this way to better control the flight, in addition to achieving that said extension can be easily picked up when you are not flying.

Depending on the species of which we are, certain parts of its body vary, such as the ears, being specimens with very large ears in proportion to their head, and other bats with tiny ones.

Echolocation

One of the most impressive abilities of these mammals is echolocation. This technique consists of the emission of ultrasounds (high-frequency sounds) that once emitted collide with the environment that surrounds the animal so that when they revolve they give it a situation of everything, as would happen for example with the probes of ships or submarines. This helps to manage perfectly in the caves that some of these species inhabit, or even to hunt other animals or find fruits with which they feed. Each species emits a characteristic frequency and is completely different from that of another species, differentiating itself in this way.

Although it has come to be thought that bats are blind, this is a myth that has spread throughout the world, being false, since everyone has vision, although this is very reduced, they help you in some moments to better locate the terrain or to see certain dangers, but they indeed use their echolocation ability more frequently.

The species of bats that do present an improvement in their vision are megabats, which have larger and better-developed eyes that help them to move around the environment, although they also use ultrasound when it is night or the area is dark.

Bats are animals that prefer to group in groups of thousands or millions of members to protect themselves, coming to find bats of different species in caves, crevices, and other habitats.

Where bats live

We can find bats in all parts of the world, except in the coldest areas and some of the oceanic islands, otherwise they are well distributed. However, the most impressive species, such as the so-called megaburcielagos, animals that can measure more than a meter in wingspan from one wing to the other, are only found in America.

According to the studies that have been carried out on bats, it has come to think, looking at their worldwide distribution, that they originated in warm areas, in the Eocene period. The tropics are the best places where we can visualize them the most. For this reason, if we are in Ecuador, it will be easier to observe them in greater numbers, and if we move towards the poles, there are fewer and fewer species. To know the bats that live in Spain, we have an article about the types that inhabit our lands.

What do bats eat

To look at the feeding of the bat, it would be necessary to distinguish between different categories, since there is a great variation between them. On the one hand, we are going to find some species that only feed on fruit, others on insects that they manage to capture in mid-flight. On the other hand, we also find those that take the nectar from the flowers that they suck thanks to their tongues.

Others may feed on small amphibians, birds, or even mammals, such as mice or other bats. But those who have given the myth of the bloodsucking bats are a species that lives in the American tropics and that is capable of attacking certain warm-blooded animals, and then licking the blood from these wounds.

The life of these mammals is nocturnal. It is true that many of these species, especially that of large giant bats, that if they can go out to feed during the day, but prefer to move at night, having a great facility to move and not having to face food with no other animal.

This nocturnal activity not only gives them the possibility to eat better, but they also run less danger of being attacked or eaten by other beings.

Unlike the flights that we see in birds, that of bats has a special and unique point that no other animal would be able to achieve. These animals are capable of flying relatively slowly, managing to maneuver in a small space and also very fast.

This flight is mainly due to the membrane of skin called patio, which is what gives it the possibility of making great turns in the air, providing stability. These specimens can easily move their phalanges that are distributed as we have previously commented through the patagium, so with a few simple movements of these, they can change the course.