13 Asome Bat Facts|Life Cycle|Food habits

13 Asome Bat Facts

Being a bat is not easy. With Dracula, bats had several cases of rabies, sharp teeth and the fact that they slept upside down. Bats inspired many people's fears. But, as you will see, even if bats eat bugs, they are still great creatures. . . Sometimes it is blood.

1. Bats are the only mammals that can fly. And you think this is a winged mar! Bats are exceptionally good in the air. Their wings are very thin and they are called "wings" in flight. The force that the bat must push forward is called "propulsion."

2. A brown bat can catch about 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in an hour. It is estimated that in Brecon Cave, Texas, 20 million Mexican tailless bats living there have eaten about 200 tons of insects every night.

3. Vampire bats do not suck blood. They wrapped it. calm. There are only three vampire bats in the world. However, if you are traveling in Central or South America, you may see a vampire bat biting a cow and then licking blood from the wound-no sucking involved.

4. There is no "Obese Day" for bats. The metabolism of bats is enviable-they can digest bananas, mangoes and berries in about 20 minutes.

5. Less than 10 people have been infected with rabies from North American bats in the past 50 years. Due to movies and television, bats are considered to be bacterial machines, bringing disease and toxins to innocent victims. wrong. Bats avoid people. If you are bitten by a bat, please see a doctor, but do not start arranging funerals-you may be fine.

6. The bat uses echolocation to avoid darkness. Bats have poor vision and live a lot at night, so they have to rely on navigation methods other than vision. The bat beeps and listens to changes in the echoes. These echoes are reflected back to them. This is how they avoid them. Bats are nocturnal, mainly because it is easier to catch bugs and stay away from predators when it is dark. Bats use their eyesight to see things during the day, but for the sake of convenience, most bat businesses are conducted in the dark.

7. Bats account for a quarter of all mammals. Yes, you read it right. One-quarter of all mammals are bats. There are more than 1,100 species of bats in the world. Lots of bats!

8. In the United States, more than 50% of bat species are rapidly decreasing or listed as endangered. You don’t know what you have until it disappears. Industry, deforestation, pollution and good old-fashioned killings have wiped out many bats and their habitats.

9. Cold night? Roll to the bat! In the graceful caves they like very much, bats keep warm by folding their wings around them, trapping air on their bodies for immediate isolation.

10. The anticoagulant found in the saliva of vampire bats may soon be used to treat heart disease patients. What keeps blood flowing from the vampire bat's prey seems to also make blood flow in humans. Scientists in some countries are trying to replicate the enzymes found in the saliva of vampire bats to treat heart disease and stop the impact of stroke on humans.

11. A bat has only one cub a year. The offspring of most smaller mammals are much more than that. Think about cats, rabbits and mice.

12. Ordinary bats may live longer than your pet dog. The average life span of bats varies, but some brown bats can reach 30 years old. Considering that the life span of other small mammals is only about two years, this is impressive.

13. Wash the bat behind the ear. Bats even spend more time self-retouching than teenagers obsessed with images. They carefully clean themselves and each other by licking and scraping for hours.

Life Cycle of bats

The annual cycle of sexual activity occurs between May and July. In men, the testicles, usually located in the abdomen, drop to the scrotum seasonally, and active spermatogenesis occurs. In women, sexual acceptance may be related to egg maturation and release. Tropical bats may only exhibit a single annual sexual cycle, or they may be female bat (that is, have two fertile periods) or multi-sex (many).

The sexual cycles of the entire population are closely synchronized, so almost all matings occur within a few weeks. The time of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and weaning are usually synchronized. The duration of pregnancy varies: 5 to 6 months for fox bats (Pteropus), more than 5 months for vampire bats (Desmodus), more than 3 months for some Hipposideros, and 6 for several small bats Or 7 to 14 weeks bats (Vespertilionidae family). Pregnancy time may be affected by the surrounding environment (environment) and body temperature.

In several hibernating bats and horseshoe bats in North America and Northern Europe, mating occurs in autumn, and sperm are kept in the female reproductive tract until spring. When females regain adequate food supplies and warm habitats, they appear to ovulate, fertilize, and implant after hibernation. This favorable environmental condition greatly improves the survival chance of young bats.

Most bats have a young, but the large brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) may have twins, while the eastern red bat (Lasiurusborealis) has 1-4 nests.

Young babies may be one-sixth to one-third of their mothers at birth, and usually well-developed hind legs can be used to support the mother or habitat. Their wings are very immature. In childhood, it is glabrous or slightly hairless, and is often blind and deaf. Female bats usually have a breast (breast) or armpit (underarm) breast on each side. Several species that carry young during foraging also have a pair of fake nipples, and the baby may mouth its mouth when the mother flies. In many small bats, babies are fed with milk for about five or six weeks, and in Indian fox bats (Pteropus giganteus) for five months. By two months of age, most smaller bats have flown and foraged for three to four weeks, and reached adult size.

In many species, females migrate to special nurseries in late pregnancy, where a large number of females may accumulate, usually excluding non-pregnant females, males, and bats of other species. In some cases, it seems that nursery habitats are chosen because of their high temperature, which may come from the sun, the bat itself, or decomposed bird droppings. When foraging, some bats (Erophylla) make the baby bat quietly hang one by one on the wall or ceiling of the cave. In the case of Mexican tailless bats and some other bats, babies that are closer together may move around and mix on the wall. Some bats will accompany their cubs for a short time. Normally, after each mother returns to her habitat, she will find her offspring through the exchange of position, smell and sound.

Some bats reach sexual maturity in the first year, while others reach sexual maturity in the second year. The infant mortality rate seems to be high. Development, genetic errors, and disease have caused huge losses to people, but accidents seem to have caused greater losses-young people may have fallen off the ceiling, or had a severe collision in an early flight attempt. Quite a few bats may not be able to transition from dependent babies to self-sufficient foragers.

On the other hand, the mortality rate of adult bats is low. Predation rarely occurs, especially for species that live in caves. Disease, parasite infestation, starvation and accidents obviously caused very little damage. There are several records of the big brown (Eptesicus fuscus), the small brown (Myotis lucifugus) and the larger horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum). Their life span has exceeded 20 years, while others have exceeded 30 years. Lived for more than ten years. The lifespan of most tropical species has not been determined, but it is known that several of them can live longer than 10 years.

There may be several reasons for the longevity of bats. Usually isolated habitats and nocturnal flights basically protect them from predation, from certain weather factors and from sunlight. They are largely a colonial lifestyle, which ensures that the entire population is contagious and has subsequent immunity. In fact, this past model may have accelerated the adaptation to the disease. Continued use of various seasonal habitats may ensure isolation and safety, food and water supply, and contact with partners. In addition, many bats lower their body temperature when they are at rest. Due to reduced metabolism, it is not only possible to preserve the “mechanism” of some cells, but it also takes less time to actively seek food and water.

 

Social interactions

Although social interactions between adult bats have not been observed, it is well known that they are often segregated by sex. As mentioned above, pregnant females of many species occupy special brooding grounds until they are young and independent. In some species, sex occupies the same habitat, but gathers in separate clusters. In other genders, genders are mixed together or arranged in a group, for example, women are in the middle, and men are in the periphery. Several species have reportedly been sex-separated during foraging. Among the long-distance migrating bats, such as the free-tailed bats, red bats, and pulsatilla bats in Mexico, the sexes may only meet for a short time each year.

Food habits

1. Most bats feed on flying insects. In some cases, prey species can be identified from the contents of the stomach or the debris from the night time habitat, but such studies have not yet provided a suitable measure of the bat diet. Bats use echolocation to identify and track insects in flight. Large insects may be intercepted by the wing membrane and pulled into the cavity. Some bats feed on arthropods, such as large insects, spiders and scorpions found on the ground, walls or vegetation. These bats may land and kill prey before landing, or pick them up with their teeth while hovering.

2. Our genus (Noctilio and Myotis) includes at least one species that catch small fish and possibly crustaceans. All species that feed on fish also feed on flying insects or have close relatives. The hind feet of each fish are particularly large, arming the fish with long, strong claws.

3. Lepidoptera and many leaf cysts feed on a variety of fruits, and their color is usually green or brown. Usually, these fruits are either directly grown on wood, or hung away from most of the trees, and have a sour or musky fragrance.

4. The Old World fruit bat subfamily Macroglossinae (and some other fruit bats) and some leaf-nosed bats feed at least in part on nectar and pollen. Many tropical flowers suitable for pollination by these bats open at night with a white or unremarkable odor, with a sour, rancid or mammalian odor, and are born on wood, drooping branches, or beyond most plants. Phyllostomid glossophaginae may also feed on flowers.

5. Several leaf cysts and giant skin animals are carnivorous and feed on small rodents, bats, sleeping birds, tree frogs and lizards. A real vampire feeds on the blood of a large mammal or bird, falls near a quiet potential victim, walks or jumps to a relatively bare, fragile part of the skin, ie the ear or nostril edge around the anus, for example, on the toes Between the toes or between the toes, make a shallow bite from the such, the blood oozes out freely, and then wrap the blood with a very special tongue action. Each vampire needs about 15 milliliters (about half an ounce) of blood per night.

6. The interaction between bats and food (whether it is insects, fruits or flowers) may have a significant impact on some biomes. Many plants rely on bats for pollination. Other plants benefit from the seed spread of bats. Two families of moths are known to take evasive or protective action on the pulse of nearby bats. This adaptation means a lot of predation.

Are Bats Dangerous?

If you want to know whether bats are harmful to humans or pets, then you should know that the short answer to this question is "not living alone". Indeed, most cases of rabies transmission are caused by bats and have health responsibilities, but the bat that bites you may or may not be infected. In fact, bat droppings and possible parasites are more dangerous to you or your pet than bat bites.