Greg Bacon, Gabe Peters, and Alex Swanson Period One Mammals Unit Project Greg Bacon, Gabe Peters, and Alex Swanson Period One

BATS Bats are the only group of mammals which are capable of flight. They are warm blooded animals and have two visible wings.

Habitat 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." 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.

Physical Traits 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 war

Anatomy of a Bat

Eating Habits Fruit-eating bats prefer ripe fruit. As they fly they drop seeds which can grow into new trees. Meat eating bats use vision, echolocation and sounds from their prey to help locate their food. Fishing bats grab little fish out of the water with their claws. Echolocation is used to find this food. Most vampire bats drink the blood of birds. Some vampire bats drink the blood of other mammals like cattle. Seventy percent of bats eat insects. The little Brown Bat can eat up to 1200 night flying insects in just one hour.

Reproductive Habits Baby bats or pups are very small and defenseless when they are born. They are usually born in large colonies with thousands of babies squeezed together hanging from the ceiling of a cave. This keeps them warm and safe. A mother must use smell and recognize the cry in order to located their own pup in the crowd. It is several months before a baby is able to fly and hunt alone. Until then it relies on mother's milk for food. They give birth from mid-May through July, and they nurse their pups in the same way other mammals do. Bats only have one pup per year.

Self Defense Methods Bats are very shy creatures. Like most wild animals, they avoid contact with humans and go about the business of eating, reproducing, and avoiding predators. Bats are nocturnal, resting during the day and hunting insects at night.

Importance of Bats Some bats help control the insect population. A single little brown bat can catch 600 Mosquitoes in just one hour. 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. 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. 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.

Works Cited http://members.aol.com/bats4kids2/help.htm http://www.lads.com/BasicallyBats/pages.html