All About Bats

Last week I did an entry about cats so this one is about bats. Most people don't appreciate bats. They get a bad rap for turning into vampires and fanging people. They are very important to the ecosystem though and some bats are downright cute. The flying fox is one of the cutest. Some bat facts from http://facts.randomhistory.com/bat-facts.html

1. The Bracken Bat Cave in Texas is the largest known bat colony in the world. Over 20 million bats live in the cave, which is more bats than there are people living in Mumbai, India—one of the world’s largest human cities. When the bats leave the cave, the group is so large that it looks like a huge storm on radar. The bats will eat over 200 tons of bugs in one night. 
2. There are over 1,100 bat species in the world—only rodents have a greater number of species. In the United States, there are about 45 kinds of bats; the three most common are the Eptiesicus fuscus (big brown bat),Myotis lucifugus (little brown bat), and Tadarida brasilienis (Mexican free-tailed bat). Only three species of bats are vampire bats.
3. The world’s largest bat is the giant golden-crowned flying fox, a rare fruit bat. It has a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet.
4. Rarely will a vampire bat bite a person—but if it does, it will then probably come back the next night to feed again from that same person. Amazingly, vampire bats can tell people apart by the way they breathe.
5. More than half of all bats in the U.S. are endangered or in decline. Both loss of habitat and a mysterious illness called “White-Nose Syndrome” (which has affected over a million bats) are major reasons for the decline.
6. A single brown bat (myotis) lives longer than most equally sized mammals, with a life span of nearly 40 years. Mice and shrews often live less than two years.
7. Bat dropping is called guano and is an important fertilizer in many tropical regions because of its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen.
8. The bats that feed on frogs can tell the difference between safe and poisonous frogs by listening to the male frog’s call.
9. A poll by the television show Animal Planet listed vampire bats as the third-most feared animal on the planet, right after wolves and gorillas and just ahead of piranhas.
10. A bat uses 30-60 days of stored energy to wake up out of hibernation. That is why it is so important to not disturb hibernating bats.

The World According To GMonster
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