BAT DAY A Really Great Lesson by Mrs. Golenberke This lesson is dedicated to the memories of Dr. Kenneth Andersen – the “Bat Man” of Gannon University. He isn’t dead, there are just some great memories from the bat caves of San Salvador in the Bahamas

Bat Myths

Blind as a bat? Although their eyes are adapted to darkness, all bats can see, some as well as humans

The Pomo Indians of California believed that bats could eat volcanic rock and then spew forth arrowheads.

The legend of Dracula, the human vampire, arose long before real blood-drinking bats were discovered in South America

Bats do not become entangled in women's hair, and yet this belief still persists in the Western World.

"Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog." Recipe for a witches' brew, from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The sinister association of bats with the underworld has been a recurrent theme in European folklore.

Because witches and bats both fly at night, they are natural partners in European folklore.

Medieval folklore suggests the disturbing double nature of bats: They "fly like a bird" but "bite like a beast."

In China, bats are believed to bring good luck. Thus a bat entering a Chinese house would be welcome.

In Europe a bat entering the house would be seen as an evil omen.

Mexican farmers refer to bats as "old mice“ (ratones viejos), in the belief that rats and mice develop wings when they grow old.

What Mrs. G has to say on the subject of bats Order Chiroptera – “hand wing” Bats ARE NOT: flying rodents - they are mammals  bats are more closely related to us  reproduce slowly – one bat per year (live up to 30 years) blind  must have good sight to eat insects at night  have sonar also to help – man made version doesn’t come close *can fly without sonar but they bump into things (kind of like riding without a seat belt) Interested in getting in your hair  if thy can detect a mosquito in the dark, they won’t blunder into hair dirty & carry rabies  bats are very clean & must be so to fly  less than.3% of bats carry rabies (3 in every thousand)  people used to believe that bats were unaffected by rabies  you are more likely to contract rabies from a skunk or domestic animal mean  Bats are not aggressive  They often look mean because of photographers wanting good pictures

Mrs. G has even more to say… Importance of Bats There are nearly 1000 species of bats in the world (39 in the US) They range in size from bumblebee (Thailand) that weighs less than a penny to flying foxes with wingspans of up to 6 ft Importance to Ecology 1. Eat Insects (70%) – the rest eat fish, crickets, pollen, nectar  can eat 30% of body weight (4-8 pound of insects per year)  they can eat about insects per hour, or 1 every 7 second  In New York, 1000 bats eat 2-4 tons of insects per year – in summer resorts, no pesticides are allowed  Bats do somersaults to catch mosquitoes with tail 2. Eat Fruit & Pollen (Tropics)  important for pollination & seed dispersal (bananas, cashews)  loss of bats could threaten survival of tropical rainforests Bats do hibernate  live in trees, tree bark, caves, bridges, mines, attics, plants leaves, rock crevices – all but in the Polar Regions

And now for the music…

IF THEY FLY, WHY AREN'T THEY BIRDS? Do you know why? Is there a difference? Take a look and find out! Are you more like a bat or a bird?

Bats are mammals. They have fur or hair. A baby bat is born live. The babies nurse from their mom. Bats have arms, hands and feet. They are warm blooded. Birds Are...well...birds! They are hatched from eggs. Birds have feathers, not fur or hair. Babies are fed from mom's mouth. They have wings, but no hands and fingers.

So, are bats and birds different? Yes they are. And, a bat is the only mammal that can truly fly... even though it is not a bird! Isn't that amazing? Aren't bats really amazing?

WHAT DOES A BAT LOOK LIKE? The diagram below shows the main parts of a bat. bat illustration by Aletha Reppel, Bat Conservation International Educator's Activity Book A BAT'S BODY DOES MANY THINGS THAT HELP IT LIVE.

EARS: Bats have very good hearing. They use it for finding food and locating their babies. For insect and fish eaters, the big ears help with echolocation. Usually, echoes are received by funnel-shaped ears that face forward. NOSE: The sense of smell is well developed in most bats. It is used to find and identify certain foods and to recognize roost mates and young. Fruit eating bats can find their food by the smell of the ripening fruit. Nectar seeking bats gather pollen on their snout, and by going from flower to flower help create new plants. EYES: Bats are not blind! For example, flying fox bats have very good eyesight and they use their eyes along with their excellent sense of smell to help find food in the dark. Bats' eyes are better at seeing in the dark. Most see objects only in black and white, but color vision is known to exist in some old world fruit bats. FEET: With their strong claws, bats are able to hang upside down in their roosts. Fishing bats also use their claws to scoop up the fish they will eat. HANDS AND WINGS: Bats fly by using their hands and wings. While the wings are flapping, bats can go up or down by moving the membrane between the body and fifth finger. This is called "lift." Bats move forward (called "thrust") by changing the shape of the membrane between the second and fifth fingers. FUR ON THEIR BODY: You can tell that a bat is a mammal because it has fur or hair on its body. The fur protects the bat because different colors and designs can serve as camouflage and they can hide from danger. The fur is kept clean by regular licking, somewhat like what a cat does. In the winter it helps keep the bat warm.

BAT FOODS The nearly 1,000 different kinds of bats in the world eat a variety of foods, and sometimes, while doing so, help humans. Fruit-eating bats prefer ripe. As they fly they drop seeds which can grow into new trees. Bats that like to eat pick up pollen. By going from flower to flower, bats help make new plants. eating bats use vision, echolocation and sounds from their prey to help locate their food. Fishing bats grab little out of the water with their claws. Echolocation is used to find this food. Most vampire bats drink the of birds. One kind of vampire bat also drinks the blood of other mammals like cattle. The study of this bat's saliva may someday help humans with heart problems. 70 Percent of bats eat. The Little Brown Bat can eat up to 1,200 night flying insects in just one hour. This helps all of us.

WHAT KINDS OF HOMES DO THEY HAVE? Many bats find trees to be the perfect place to roost and spend time taking care of their babies. Some bats actually live under big leaves and by using camouflage they can hide from harm and danger. There are other bats that roost under the bark of trees, while still others just hang from the branches Perhaps the place where most people think bats live is in caves. And a lot of bats do find these big underground caverns a perfect place in which to raise their babies and to sleep during the day. Bracken Cave in Texas has close to 20 million Mexican Free Tail bats living there. At times bats may use houses or buildings as a roosting site. Even though these places are not as good as their natural habitats, these man-made structures do offer them protection and are much like their preferred roosts. Wherever there is a bridge, there might also be bats living under it. Even the noise of a busy road overhead doesn't seem to scare them. As the sun sets, they begin their night flight out to look for food. It's a beautiful sight to see. Some bats may find old mines that are no longer being used and set up their colony there. People often like to explore these mines and when they do, they disturb the bats. Putting a heavy grate at the mine opening protects the bats. Not all mines are good for bats. They must be like the caves in which bats also live. There is another type of home in which bats will live, but often other animals or insects will get in it first before the bats can. These are bat houses that many people build hoping bats will move in. There are books in the library on how to build a bat house and where to put it, or reach the web site of Bat Conservation International which can also help provide plans.

Where In The Do They Live? Bats can be found in almost every part of the world except where it is very, very hot or in the really cold areas and on some remote islands. They live on all continents except Antarctica. You can find more species of bats (different kinds) where the weather is nice and warm. Those warm spots are near the equator and are called the " tropics " and " rain forests." On islands that are far from continents, there are only a few species of bats. That's because it's too far for most bats to fly this great distance to reach those islands. In the United States, the greatest number of bat species live in the southwestern part of the country. This area has a variety of places where bats can live and there is a lot of food available during most of the year. For example, Texas has 32 different kinds of bats while Maine has only 8; and Arizona has 28 species, but Michigan has just 10. Do you know how many different kinds of bats live in your part of the world? Do you know what they are? Check with your library to find the answers to these questions.

HOW DO BATS HELP HUMANS? Many bats are truly very helpful to people. Here's How! photo (c) Merlin Tuttle/Bat Conservation International Some bats help control the insect population. For example. Don't want mosquitoes? A single little brown bat can catch 600 Mosquitoes in just one hour. Bugs bugging you? The 20 million Mexican free-tail bats from Bracken Cave, Texas can eat 250 tons of insects in a night! BESIDES With bats eating all those insects, this means fewer chemicals and poisons will be used on crops, and that's healthier for all of us! Certain Bats are helpful to farmers. For example. A colony of just 150 big brown bats can aid farmers by eating up to 18 million or more rootworms each summer. BESIDES This saves crops from damage, and makes more food available at the market Many bats spread seeds for new plants and trees. For example. Tropical bats are important to rain forests. They pollinate flowers and drop seeds for many trees and bushes. In the wild, important plants, from bananas and mangos to nuts, dates and figs, depend upon bats for pollination and seed dropping. In the southwestern part of the United States, nectar-feeding bats are the main pollinators of the giant saguaro cactus. BESIDES By helping to rebuild cut forests, bats are also making sure other animals continue to have homes, shelter and food The Vampire bat might help scientists. The saliva from the vampire bat is being studied to see if someday a new medicine can be found to help people with heart problems WE CAN PROTECT BATS BY TELLING OTHERS HOW HELPFUL AND USEFUL THEY ARE. BUT REMEMBER, BATS ARE WILD ANIMALS AND YOU SHOULD NEVER TOUCH THEM. YOU MUST LEAVE THEM ALONE.

A Really Bad Bat Cartoon

Everybody’s Favorite: Vampire Bats Desmodus rotundus Only 1 out of 1000 species feed on the blood of mammals Found only in Latin America, Mexico & Argentina Found near herds of cattle or horses – can be a pest & transmit disease – they often feed on the young or weak animals Weigh less than 2 ounces & is 4 inches long Feed on a variety of animals (chickens, cows, horses, pigs)  since there is a danger of being stepped on, the bats feed at night when the animals are inactive How do they find prey?  good eyesight  sensitive hearing  heat sensing pits Can fly, walk on 2 legs or use wings to walk on 4 Use heat pits to find blood rich part Use razor sharp teeth – DO NOT SUCK – they lap up the blood (like a cat) Use an anticoagulant – allows blood to flow without clotting (for a few minutes)  this is important for people with heart conditions Can eat for up to 30 minutes – stomach extends – can eat so much they can no longer fly Will feed on another’s regurgitated blood – they share! (rare)

Cool Bat Pics

Amazing Bat Trivia The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny. Giant flying foxes that live in Indonesia have wingspans of nearly six feet. The common little brown bat of North America is the world's longest lived mammal for its size, with life-spans sometimes exceeding 32 years. Mexican free-tailed bats sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or to catch tail- winds that carry them over long distances at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour. The pallid bat of western North America is immune to the stings of scorpions and even the seven-inch centipedes upon which it feeds. Fishing bats have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair, protruding only two millimeters above a pond's surface. African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet. Red bats that live in tree foliage throughout most of North America can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees F. during winter hibernation. Tiny woolly bats in West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders. The Honduran white bat is snow white with a yellow nose and ears. It cuts large leaves to make "tents" that protect its small colonies from jungle rains. Disk-winged bats of Latin America have adhesive disks on both wings and feet that enable them to live in unfurling banana leaves (or even walk up a window pane!). Frog-eating bats identify edible from poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs. Frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult to locate calls. Vampire bats adopt orphans and have been known to risk their lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates. Male epauletted bats have pouches in their shoulders which contain large, showy patches of white fur that they flash during courtship to attract mates. Mother Mexican free-tailed bats find and nurse their own young, even in huge colonies where many millions of babies cluster at up to 500 per square foot.

Important Bat Facts More than 1,100 species of bats account for almost a quarter of all mammal species, and most are highly beneficial. Worldwide, bats are an important natural enemies of night-flying insects. A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquitoes-sized insects in just one hour. A colony of 150 big brown bats can protect local farmers from up to 33 million or more rootworms each summer. The 20 million Mexican free-tails from Bracken Cave, Texas eat approximately 200 tons of insects nightly. Tropical bats are key elements in rain forest ecosystems which rely on them to pollinate flowers and disperse seeds for countless trees and shrubs. In the wild, important agricultural plants, from bananas, breadfruit and mangoes to cashews, dates, and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal. Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3,000th of normal without bat pollinators. Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti, including the famous organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona. Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing gasohol and antibiotics. An anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients. Contrary to popular misconception, bats are not blind, do not become entangled in human hair, and seldom transmit disease to other animals or humans. All mammals can contract rabies; however, even the less than a half of one percent of bats that do, normally bite only in self-defense and pose little threat to people who do not handle them. Bats are exceptionally vulnerable to extinction, in part because they are the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size, most producing only one young annually. More than 50% of American bat species are in severe decline or already listed as endangered. Losses are occurring at alarming rates worldwide. Loss of bats increases demand for chemical pesticides, can jeopardize whole ecosystems of other animal and plant species, and can harm human economies.

Websites to Visit: dlife/bats.php ureFeature/Vampire-bat

The End! See, bats are really cool!

Bat IQ Quiz F T F F F T T F F T

And now for a video…