In
the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere, bats are beginning to
emerge from hibernation. What better time to celebrate them?
Why
celebrate bats?
- They are the only mammals capable of true flight.
They
can “see” what we can't, in the dark, using echolocation. Bats
emit ultrasonic sounds and then listen to the reflected sounds (or
echoes); from the reflections their brains build a detailed image
that includes distance and textures of things in the environment.
Bats also listen for other sounds, such as those created by their
insect prey: the fluttering of moth wings or the movement of earwigs
in the ground. It's hard to imagine that bats can hear such teeny
sounds while emitting 15 signals each and every second and listening
for the echoes of those
sounds, too, all the while flying at 5 to 10 miles per hour—even
up to 60 miles per hour! Bats can tell the distance of walls and
trees and insects, they can tell the difference between hard- and
soft-bodied insects, and they can “see” and avoid wires as thin
as a human hair!
- Bats rid our world of many bothersome, disease-spreading, crop-invading insects. (Well, the insectivorous bats do, at least. Some bats eat fruit rather than insects.) One little brown bat can eat 1,000 mosquitos in JUST ONE HOUR! With a lifespan of almost 40 years, a little brown bat can eat a LOT of mosquitos!
Find
out more about bats at Amazing Bat Facts.
Help
save bats!
Unfortunately,
many bat species are in trouble. Bats are susceptible to pesticides
and other poisons; they can be killed by wind turbines; their homes
and hibernacula are often disturbed by spelunking (cave exploration)
or other human activities. Check out this blog post to learn more
about dangers to bats.
Google
“bat rescue” to see if you can find any local efforts to save
bats. Perhaps you can donate money, build bat houses for your
backyard,
or teach others about the importance of bats to our ecosystem. Here
is a story about a rescue of some orphaned baby bats in Australia
(check out the adorable photo!),
and here is an organization trying to save bats in the U.S.
Also
on this date:
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