They generally mate once a year and give birth to one or two young about four months later. When a female bat is ready to give birth, she switches positions in order to hang with her head upright. As the baby is born, she catches it with her tail. They wrap their wings around the pups (yes, that's what they call them) for warmth and protection. They suckle their young with milk when born. The pup will cling to its mother during food hunts until it is too heavy to carry. The mother will then bring it food until about the fourth week when the bat pup will go hunting along side her.
You've heard it or said it before "Blind as a bat." Bats are not blind. They have small well developed eyes and most can see quite well. While in flight, bats primarily use high frequency sounds to navigate and to locate obstacles and prey. This is called echolocation and is a natural detection system. The bat will emit a series of high-pitched squeaks that bounce sound waves off objects in front of him back to his sensitive ears and face. Some bats have well developed sense organs around the nose and mouth. The bat is able to interpret the echoes in such a way that it can determine the size, distance and direction of a moving or stationary object. Porpoises also use this method to accurately locate objects. A bat cannot navigate if its head is covered.
Bats communicate using other sounds that are not made using echolocation. These sounds, squeaks, and squawks are made while roosting, defending territories or communicating with their young.
A community of bats is usually comprised of entirely the same sex. They live in large groups, usually in dark, sheltered places such as caves, trees, abandoned buildings and under overhanging eves. They do not have nests and rarely live in belfries. They sleep mainly during the day, hanging with head downward, wings folded about their bodies. They fly at dusk or at night seeking food.
Because they fly only at night and live in tombs and abandoned churches, bats are believed to be an omen of evil. Contrary to popular belief, they are not vicious, blood-sucking pests that spread rabies and attack humans, getting tangled in hair. Many species lend stability to our environment, while others are ecologically important. Depending on the species of bat, they may eat insects, fruit, blossoms, nectar, fish or other small vertebrate animals. 75% of bats eat insects and other invertebrates. These bats destroy huge numbers of insects and agricultural pests each year and can eat their weight in insects per day. Fruit and nectar-eating bats are among the most important seed dispersers and pollinators of the tropical rain forest plants. Many economically important crops such as bananas and peaches are dependent upon bats for pollination.
The vampire bat lives on the blood of other mammals, including humans. Many myths and legends have been born of this animal, the most popular being that of the blood sucking vampire. In truth, there are only three types of vampire bats and they live only in the topics, feasting mainly on cows, horses and other livestock.
Bats may look mean but they aren't. They are often photographed barring their teeth and looking scary. They are not all rabid and a horrible threat to humans. Bats are shy but wild animals. Like other wild animals, they will bite in self defense if you try to catch or pick one up. In the last 40 years, fewer than 40 people are known to have contracted Rabies from a bat bite. Of all the rabies deaths each year, 99% are from dogs. Even though less than one percent of bats actually carry Rabies, you should never handle a bat. If you find one on the ground alive, it is probably sick. You should not touch it but get help from your local vet or animal control center.
Bats are not dirty animals and they do not carry bedbugs or other small pests. They are very clean animals. They will often spend time at their roost cleaning themselves, just as a cat would.
The bat not only has a bad reputation but a few enemies as well, including owls, hawks, snakes and some other bats. A number of bat species are threatened with extinction or endangered including the flying fox and several types of fruit bats, thanks to centuries of superstitions. In the United States, nearly 40% of the native bat species are endangered because of a lack of food, due in part to practices such as habitat destruction and indiscriminate use of pesticides. Some have already gone extinct.
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