Bats About Bats!
Bats are strongly associated with spooky castles, witches brews and all things Halloween. But there is so much more to this mammal.
One fi fth of all living mammals is a bat! They’ve been around for some 64 million years. They are the only mammals which can truly fl y (other ‘fl ying’ mammals such as fl ying squirrels actually use skin fl aps to glide short distances).
Most bats navigate by emitting a sound from their larynx out through their mouth and nose. The projected sound wave is refl ected off objects in their environment. A bat hears the echo and forms an acoustic image of its surroundings. Because of this a bat can navigate in complete darkness. They are perfectly developed for this type of navigation, with huge ears, nose fl aps and tiny eyes. The small subset of bats known as fl ying foxes navigate by sight and have large eyes and much smaller ears accordingly.
In the West bats have been demonised in the form of Dracula, most likely because they are nocturnal creatures and humans are not generally creatures of the night. In ancient history darkness was scary and potentially dangerous. Historically demons are characteristically pictured with bat wings while angels are depicted with bird wings. Not all cultures treat bats in this way though. They are considered auspicious creatures in China, possibly because the Chinese words for ‘bat’ and ‘happiness’ are very similar.
Bats play an important role in the ecosystem. Some pollinate plants. Others eat fruit and disperse seeds. Most eat insects. An ordinary brown bat can consume up to 100% of its bodyweight in insects in a single night. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of bats in controlling the insect population and thus protecting food crops. The U.S. bat population is currently under threat from disease and scientists estimate the number of extra insects in the environment as a result of this is around 1500 tonnes! In order to control so many more insects we will be forced to use vast quantities of insecticides> far better to take care of the bats, who do it naturally.
Scientists studying deafness and blindness have found studying the genetic code of bats incredibly useful, giving them insights into which areas of the human genome to monitor when looking to prevent disease.
One of the most interesting things about bats is that for their size they live an incredibly long time. Most small mammals tend to live fast and die young. Mice live only a year or two and voles a matter of months. Some species of bats can live nine times longer than expected, sometimes more than forty years! Of the 19 species of mammal who live extraordinarily long lives for their size, 18 are bats, so scientists how that by studying they may be able to unlock the mysteries of age- related diseases, such as cancer and dementia. Maybe they hold the key to everlasting youth!
I hope I’ve given you an insight into these amazing little creatures and shown you that there’s so much more to them than Halloween!
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