October is Bat Appreciation Month! I’d love to make a detailed post about bats, but there’s a major problem. What is it?
- There are over 1,400 species of bat!
- They are found in nearly every biome, except for polar areas and extreme heat zones.
- Bumblebee bats are the smallest since they weigh less than a penny.
- Flying foxes are the largest with 6 foot wingspans.
- The greatest threat to bats is a disease called white-nose syndrome, which is caused by a fungus.
- Bats are major pollinators, including bananas, mangoes, guava, and various cacti.
- They are the only try flying mammal. All others glide or jump with style.
- Mexican free-tailed bats can reach speeds up to 100 miles per hour.
- Bats can eat around 1,000 mosquitoes per hour, which helps reduce diseases that those bugs can infect humans with.
- Pallid bats are immune to scorpion venom.
- Guano (bat dung) is one of the richest fertilizers in the world.
Legends of Windemere 
Bats are so cool, and we almost never see them now. Every street lamp had a couple hunting for the moths they drew when I was a kid.
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They used to be in the parks around here. Haven’t seen them in a long time.
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Bats are very cool mammals. Thanks for sharing the information and videos. In Austin there is a large population of bats of over one million. They fly out at night from their home which is a bridge over Congress Avenue. The weather radar picks them up each night. Here is a video https://youtu.be/YwWGvf38TVM
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Ver cool that you have them there. Wish we still did.
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That is so, cool, John.
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Thank you, Viv.
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When I was a child, I remember bats flying around every night. Now, not.
We had a property in rural Brittany for 16 years until 2008. There were lots of bats there. I wonder if they are still flying every night.
I often wonder why some people are afraid of them. They are amazing creatures.
And the one that can fly at 100 mph–Wow
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Fear of bats probably has to do with a few things. Misconception about them being major disease carriers is one. Another one is that they’re small, fast creatures darting through the night. That triggers a lot of people’s fight and flight because they can’t clearly see them. They just know something is moving around them.
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The bumblebee bats sound especially cute.
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Found pictures and they are.
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