Read more about: Bats
The populations of birds and bats are declining in North America and around the world. These animals are crucial to ecosystems around the world because they consume undesirable pests and insects, which benefits humans greatly and helps maintain the balance of vital ecosystems. Given that many of them are pollinators, bats and birds are also crucial to crop productivity. Both species are declining because their migratory and natural habitats are being lost. Their decline can also be attributed to the overuse of insecticides, which can harm non-pest insects that serve as food for birds and bats.
Because of their strong, dense skeletons, birds and bats have evolved to be exceptionally proficient flyers. The bones of birds are stiff and dense, but they are actually hollow with air pockets. Birds have evolved with a specialized set of bones that are strong and rigid. Bats have adapted as well thanks to their robust, stiff bones. They are also stronger because of the rounder shape of their bones.
It happens frequently to confuse a bat for a bird. Bats are soaring birds of prey that are typically visible in the evening, when it is more difficult to tell them apart. Before, people thought that bats were birds because they lacked feathers.
Bats are the only mammals capable of flight. The skin membranes that join their fingers and legs form their wings. They have an additional membrane that serves as a rudder and connects their legs to their tail, which helps them catch prey. Birds have stiff, feathered wings, and various species benefit from the flight advantages provided by their varied forms, lengths, and plumage.
However, there are two very different classifications for bats and birds: bats are considered mammals, and birds are considered aves. Bats produce milk to nourish their young and give birth to live young. Birds lay eggs and forage to feed their young. Birds have beaks but no teeth, while bats have jaw bones and sharp teeth.
What Do Bats Eat?
Given that there are nearly a thousand different species of bats, it is not surprising that they consume a wide variety of foods. They are also excellent hunters, able to detect even the smallest movements and faintest sounds. So what do bats eat?.
Bracken Cave is home to 20 million Mexican free-tail bats, which can consume about 200 tons of insects in a single night. Which would be like eating 200 Volkswagen Beetle cars.
Most bats eat insects and are called insectivores. These bats like to eat beetles, moths, mosquitoes, and more. And they sure do eat a lot of insects. One small brown bat can consume as many as 500 mosquito-sized insects in an hour, which is a lot of insects! Imagine how many more insects there might be without these insectivorous bats! Some bat colonies have millions of bats!
Certain bat species have a preference for eating fruit, seeds, and flower pollen. These bats are called frugivores. Their favorite foods are figs, mangoes, dates, and bananas. It has been observed that certain frugivores consume sugar water from hummingbird feeders.
What other foods do bats consume? Some species of bats have been known to consume fish, frogs, lizards, birds, and even other bats. There are even bats that drink blood. These are called vampire bats. The only three species of vampire bats are found in Central and South America. Don’t worry, either; vampire bats dislike consuming human blood. They mainly get blood from cows, sheep, and horses. Vampire bats slit a tiny hole in the skin of a sleeping animal and take a small amount of blood. Because vampire bats only require roughly two teaspoons of blood per day, the cow or sheep frequently doesn’t even wake up while the bat is feeding.
A trick question, you might think, since all of these are food for bats of some kind, is to identify which of these is not a bat food. There are even more foods that bats like to eat. Which bat foods are missing from the group?.
References:
Wilson, Don. 1997. Bats in Question. The Smithsonian Answer Book. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. 168p.
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