Most of what people think they know about bats is wrong. Bats are not blind, they aren’t flying mice, and they won’t get tangled in your hair. Yet we have let our ignorance jeopardize one of Earth’s most valuable assets: Bats play such crucial roles in ecosystems around the world that their loss would threaten countless plants and animals and diminish human environments and economics.
More than 1,100 kinds of bats account for one-fourth of all mammal species, and they come in an amazing variety: big-eared, sucker-footed, ghost-faced, spotted, wooly, spectacled – from the world’s smallest mammal to giant flying foxes with six-foot wingspans.
· In the desert, nearly 100 species of desert plants, including the dramatic organ pipe cactus is pollinated by bats
· Approximately half of all rainforest mammal species are bats.
· Bats help keep vast numbers of night-flying insects in check.
· Bats are primary predators of beetles, moths, leafhoppers, and many other insect pests that cost farmers and foresters billion of dollars every year.
· More than 450 commercial products, including fibers, dyes, fuel, medicine, and timber, come from bat-dependent plants.
· In the wild, bananas, mangoes, peaches, dates, figs, cloves, and carob all rely on tropical bats.
Did you know that . . .
· Not only do bats see as well as other mammals, they also use echolocation – a biological sonar system – to detect objects as fine as a human hair in total darkness.
· Bats carefully groom themselves and are among the cleanest of animals.
· Like all mammals, an occasional bat may contract rabies. But even sick bats are usually non-aggressive, biting only in self-defense if handled. Do not handle bats. Simply left alone, they are invaluable allies.
· Though bats are long lived (some live up to 39 years), they reproduce slowly. Most species bear and nurse just one pup a year.
· Vampire bats live only in