What is another name for a bat? The bat is a useful vampire

Bats – the only mammals that have mastered air environment thanks to the presence of wings. In addition, the bat is not related to the terrestrial mouse either in origin or in lifestyle.

What species is a bat? She belongs to the order Chiroptera, whose name speaks for itself. Why bats called mice? she was named for the remote external resemblance with a land rodent and the ability to make sounds similar to a mouse squeak.

Appearance

Bat, description: most of the animal's body is devoted to the wings. If you do not take them into account, you can note a miniature body with a short neck and an elongated head. The mouth slit of the animals is large, sharp teeth are visible through it.

Some types of bats charm people with their pretty faces, while others scare unusual shape nose, disproportionately large ears and amazing growths on the head.

The cutest bats of the fruit bat family considered a fruit dog: she has big ones open eyes and an elongated nose, similar to a fox. Interestingly, some of the names were given based on the shape of the animals’ noses: pig-nosed, horseshoe-nosed, smooth-nosed.

The white bat has a kind of “horn” on its muzzle, giving its nose the shape of a petal. Thanks to this device, the animal's nostrils are directed forward capture odors faster and more efficiently.

No less The bulldog mouse has a specific appearance: on its muzzle in the transverse direction there is a cartilaginous fold running above the nose from one ear to the other. The cartilaginous roller brings the edges of the ears together, increasing their area for more perfect hearing, necessary for orientation in space during flight.

In the face animal you can “read” about the lifestyle and even about mouse nutrition. For example, fruit lovers do not need the powerful locators needed by flying representatives that traverse their surroundings at night. But their nostrils are wider: they search for food based on smells.

Photo

What a bat looks like: see photo below:

Structure

Birds have adapted to flight thanks to lightweight cellular bones, air sacs in the lungs, and feathers that are heterogeneous in structure and function. Flying bats don't have all this, and the skin membranes can hardly be called wings.

How do bats fly? Flight mice like flying aircraft Leonardo da Vinci, who adopted from nature the idea of ​​​​the structure of the wing of a flying mammal.

A continuous, air-impermeable membrane of skin “covers” air masses from above, which allows the animals to push off from them and fly.

Skeleton and wings

The skeleton of a bat has its own characteristics. Limbs bats are modified: they serve as the backbone for the wing. The humerus of these animals is short, and the bones of the forearm and the last 4 fingers are elongated in order to increase the area of ​​the flight “mantle”.

A fibrous skin fold is stretched from the neck to the fingertips of the animals. Thumb with a tenacious claw is not included in the wing, it necessary for the animal to grasp. Between the hind legs and long tail the posterior (interfemoral) part of the membrane is stretched.

See what bat wings look like in the photo below:

Flight

The arm with the wing is driven by several paired muscles of the upper girdle, which to reduce energy costs for flights attached not to the sternum, but to the fibrous base wing The keel of the sternum of animals is inferior in power to that of birds: only one muscle necessary for flight is attached to it - the pectoralis major.

Spine at flying mammals more mobile than birds. It allows mice to be more maneuverable outside the air.

Movement on the ground

How does a bat move? Evolution has deprived bats of strong bones lower belt, thigh and lower leg, leaving behind them the right to fly most of their lives.

Some types of mice, such as vampire mice, have stronger femurs and able to walk on the ground. The support for them is the thickened skin of the paw pads. Fruit bats cannot move in this way and do it extremely clumsily.

Dimensions and weight

Length of a tiny body animals inhabiting Russia are usually does not exceed 5 cm, the wingspan of the smallest of them is 18 cm. The mass of record-breaking little ones is 2-5 g.

Long-eared mice, white mice and pig-nosed mice are small in size. Representative of the latter species considered one of the smallest mammals on Earth.

Large individuals weigh up to a kilogram. The distance between the tips of the toes of the front paws with the wings spread can reach one and a half meters, and the body length can be 40 cm. Fruit bats, South American false vampires, are considered real giants among bats.

Sense organs

Bats' reaction to light: bat retinas lack cones– receptors responsible for daytime vision.

Their vision is twilight and is provided by rods. That's why During the day, animals are forced to sleep, because in daylight they see poorly.

Some representatives have eyes covered with bizarre folds of skin. This once again confirms the hypothesis that navigate in mouse space without using a visual analyzer. Close relatives of bats, fruit bats, also belonging to the order Chiroptera, have cones. These animals can also be seen during the day.

Minor role for animals there was a visual analyzer discovered in a simple experiment: when the animals were blindfolded, they did not stop navigating their surroundings. When the same was repeated with the ears, the mice began to bump into walls and objects in the room.

How do mice see in the dark?

How do bats navigate? in the dark? What sounds do bats make? The amazing ability of bats to fly and get food without vision was revealed after using sensitive sensors managed to record ultrasonic signals, which animals make during flight.

The ultrasound of bats, which is inaudible to the human ear, is reflected from surrounding objects within a radius of 15 meters, returns to the animal, is collected by the pinna and analyzed by the inner ear. Animals have fine hearing.

Nutrition

Volatile mammals have their own food preferences. Based on which product is the animal’s favorite, the following are distinguished:

• insectivores;
• carnivores;
• fruit eaters or vegetarians;
• fish-eating mice;
• vampires.

Read interesting article about how mice hunt in nature.

Dream

Sleep representatives of bats prefer upside down. With the claws of their hind legs, they cling to a horizontal crossbar or a tree branch, press their wings to their body and fall asleep. Why do bats sleep upside down (upside down)? They do not sleep while sitting: they are weak bones lower limbs cannot withstand long-term load on them while sleeping.

Sleeping bats, sensing danger, spread their wings, unclench the claws of their hind legs and fly away without wasting time getting up from a lying or sitting position.

Reproduction

How do bats reproduce and are born? Before hibernation animals open mating season. A few months after mating, the world is born 1-2 mice appear, which the mother feeds with milk for 2 weeks.

Cubs bat, are under guardianship mothers 3 weeks, after which they begin to live independently. Ask how long bats live; there is evidence that bats can live up to 30 years.

Exotic next door

For interesting facts about bats, watch the video below:

Nature knows how to surprise. Some of her creations are so unique and mysterious that you are simply amazed. For example, bats. Who doesn't remember the chilling story or movie about Count Dracula? Who in childhood did not hear horror stories about vampire mice that would fly in at night and drink your blood? Why children, many adults are full of fears and superstitions when it comes to these twilight-night hunters. Of course, all this is nonsense. A bat will not drink human blood (although there are indeed vampires among them). On the contrary, for farmers and gardeners who are not burdened by groundless fears, this animal is a welcome guest, because the benefits of its activities on agricultural land are simply enormous.

Bat habitat

The creature with webbed wings is the only flying mammal on the planet. This fact alone makes it unique and inimitable. It’s unlikely to be easy to meet him in everyday life, like a dove or a sparrow. Although it is believed that the bat is distributed almost throughout the entire globe, with the exception of the Arctic Circle, the tundra and very distant islands in Pacific Ocean. But on some other islands it is the only representative of the order of mammals. And all because others simply cannot reach such long distances, and mice can cover vast spaces above the water surface without landing.

The largest populations of bats live in the tropics, in the Amazon and Congo basins. There the number of their varieties reaches several hundred, and the total number is the most numerous on the planet. But in the taiga northern zones species diversity is represented by only two or three families. On huge Russian territories There are about 40 species of bats. The middle zone is inhabited by approximately 50-100 individuals per 1 km2, but in Central Asia this figure has already increased to 1000.

The House of the Bat - what is it like?

Considering that the bat animal leads an active life at dusk or in the darkness of the night, it is logical to assume that during the day it needs to hide from prying eyes and sun rays. The home that a winged creature chooses for itself depends on the structure of its limbs and overall size animal For the secluded have a relaxing holiday the mouse looks for natural shelters: the depths of caves, rock crevices, depressions in the sandy slopes of dunes or cliff walls, tree hollows, holes abandoned by previous inhabitants.

Some tropical representatives build themselves something like umbrella-shaped huts from the large foliage of jungle plants, gnaw cozy niche houses in the fruits of palm trees, and use the voids formed between bamboo stem nodes.

Human activity constantly destroys natural conditions, the natural habitats of the flying beauty are becoming less and less. Some animal species are already on the verge of extinction. It’s good that the adaptability of bats is quite high level, and they learn to adapt to a new habitat, close to a human neighbor, to look for suitable shelters, at least somehow reminiscent of their favorite caves, holes, crevices.

For example, in Egypt, bats have become perfectly at home in the labyrinths inside great buildings, in abandoned mines they have taken a liking to waste adits, and even within the boundaries of cities and villages they inhabit cellars, attics, woodpiles, spaces behind shutters and platbands, and haystacks. Many farmers themselves, in order to attract pest hunters, hang houses made from planks on trees. Such a dwelling should be at a height of no lower than 3 m from the ground and with a narrow lower entrance-slot (a sort of prototype of a mailbox).

Photos

Unique adaptability to the external environment

Nature has given the bat truly amazing opportunities for survival. Thus, the animal is able to withstand temperature without loss of health environment, equal to both +40C and 0C.

The diet of mice is also adapted to the conditions in which the animal lives. Tropical residents have the greatest variety of taste preferences. There are also absolute “vegetarians”, whose menu consists of flower nectar, fruit pulp, and there are also outright predators who prefer the blood of other mammals for dinner. And yet, the overwhelming majority of winged mice are insectivores, in extreme cases allowing themselves small frogs or birds.

In the middle zone, colonies of bats hunt flying pests on a large scale. The animal destroys about 1,000 mosquitoes alone per night. Plus an innumerable number of field, garden, and garden harmful insects.

An interesting experiment was carried out in the United States: one part of a corn field was covered with a net, and the other was left for free access of bats. So, it turned out that the place where the animals did not have the opportunity to hunt insects suffered from pests half as much as the open part of the field.

This clearly proves that the benefits of winged animals are very significant, given that they do not harm the crops in any way.

As soon as the warm season ends and the amount of food decreases sharply, flying families start preparing for hibernation . It is important for them that the temperature in the shelter does not fall below 0C while they are in suspended animation for several long months. With the advent of the first spring insects winged watch is back in action.

Probably every person has encountered bats at least once in his life. They can be seen in any city or village, all you have to do is go outside late in the evening or at night. When we observe these mysterious individuals, the question naturally arises: “Is a bat a bird or an animal?” Let's try to figure this out together.

Animal or bird?

A bat is an animal that belongs to the bat family. These are the only mammals that have mastered flight. The most interesting thing is that the name of the species does not correspond to reality, because these animals have nothing to do with rodents. It would be logical to call them flying monkeys, since they are similar to primates. People very often argue: “What specific species is this bird or animal? Which of these statements is true? However, it is unlikely that a person versed in zoology will be able to classify it as a bird just because it has wings. First you need to know full image life of a bat. Only after this, by providing arguments, can one be convinced of belonging to one or another genus.

Nutrition

Almost all species of bats feed on insects. Because of this, constant questions arise about what species the bat is: is it a bird or an animal. Each individual has its own taste preferences: some people prefer butterflies or midges, others prefer spiders or beetles, others prefer larvae.

Bats often grab their food during the flight, when the potential victim is hovering in the air. As a rule, they also eat on the fly, although there are also those bats that prefer to settle down in a more convenient place after hunting. Their methods of obtaining food are quite interesting and deserve attention. For example, some bats use certain movements of their wings, reminiscent of the work of blades, to scoop up insects towards them, while others use their tail membrane as a net with which they catch prey.

Types of bats

Like all animals, bats are divided into species. Bats on at the moment there are quite a lot. To date, more than 1,200 varieties have been discovered. It is unlikely that anyone will want to dispute the fact that the only flying mammals are the most common on the planet. According to statistics, every fifth animal is a bat. They all seem very similar, but they are not. Each type is different and has no analogues. IN temperate latitudes Of the total number of mice, only fifty species live. That is why many do not even suspect that they exist giant specimens! For example, the wingspan of bats living in the tropics is more than 170 centimeters. The species of bats are so diverse that research is still being carried out.

Wings

Chiropteran wings are formed due to thin skin that stretches between the body and fingers. They are designed in such a way that they are capable of emitting ultrasound, which helps bats navigate in space. With this, the animal can easily detect prey or sense an obstacle in its path. People have long believed that they love to sit on women's heads and drink blood. Actually this is not true. The hair of the weaker sex has a peculiar structure, so the wings of a bat, releasing ultrasound, do not receive any feedback, so the animal believes that there is empty space in front of it.

More information

Bats have very poor vision (black and white) and sense of smell. Their characteristic feature is perfect pitch. In order to navigate well in the dark, they make a sound and, by its echo, understand whether there is an obstacle in their path and how far away it is. Thanks to this, they do not need good vision.

The basic habits of almost all types of bats are similar. They all only lead nightlife, avoid bright places and do not build nests. During the day, bats sleep hanging upside down. Most of these mammals are able to hibernate for very long periods due to their ability to slow down body processes. Surprisingly, these animals can change the intensity of the respiratory rate, affect cardiac work, reduce the speed

Chiropterans fly well, their flight is quite fast and maneuverable, so the question of whether a bat is a bird or an animal is controversial and is often the reason for lengthy discussions.

The science that studies bats is called chiropterology. In just a few years, scientists were able to discover dozens of new species of these creatures. It has now been proven that the most widespread and numerous animal throughout the world is the bat. But, unfortunately, at the moment they have not yet been fully studied. Their habitat covers almost the entire globe, except for islands in the ocean and polar regions. They are frequent guests in forests and deserts, plains and mountains, and also live both in a populous city and in places where no human has gone before.

Winged animals can be found almost anywhere on the planet. They have not explored only the circumpolar regions, the tundra and particularly remote oceanic islands. In some island territories they are the only representatives of mammals, since capable of long non-stop flights above the water surface.

The largest number of bats, by total number and species diversity, lives in humid hot areas: up to several hundred species in the basins of tropical rivers such as the Congo and Amazon.

In the northern zones of the taiga there are only two or three species of bats.

40 species nest in Russia. The number of individuals per square kilometer is 50-100 in the middle zone and increases to 1000 in Central Asia.

Favorite places to settle

Where do bats live? Since these are nocturnal and crepuscular animals, they need secluded and safe daytime shelter.

Depending on the size and structural features of the limbs, it directly depends on where the bat lives. These animals choose the most suitable ready-made natural shelters for them - caves and rock crevices, depressions in the walls of cliffs and slopes of dunes, hollows and holes left by their inhabitants.

Some tropical species build themselves improvised umbrella huts from large leaves, they gnaw out personal niches in bundles of palm fruits or climb into the voids between the nodes of bamboo trunks.

Human encroachment into nature is destroying the natural habitats of bats; many of their species are becoming rare and disappearing. However, the bat's adaptability to its habitat is very high and, in the vicinity of people, bats try to discover new shelters for themselves, similar to their favorite caves, burrows, hollows and crevices.

In Egypt they mastered inner labyrinths of the great pyramids, in exhausted mining fields - abandoned mines and adits, in cities and villages they inhabit attics, basements, cellars, haystacks, woodpiles, sneak behind shutters and under window frames.

Reference: Representatives of most species prefer to settle in large colonies.

To attract bats in gardens and farms in trees at a height of at least 3 meters, hang special houses made of slats with a secluded lower entrance - a narrow slot, similar to inverted mailboxes.

Photo

Adaptation to the characteristics of the environment

Chiroptera creatures demonstrate amazing adaptability to the most extreme temperature conditions. They can withstand both an increase in body temperature up to 40 degrees and a decrease to zero.

Eating methods winged animals are also very diverse and correspond to the environment in which they live and reproduce.

The main contrasts occur in tropical zone, where some species consume exclusively vegetarian nectar of flowers and fruit pulp, and others - blood more large mammals. However, the majority of bats prefer. In rare cases, small vertebrates such as frogs and songbirds become their prey.

REFERENCE. The benefits that bats bring to farm crops were clearly demonstrated by an experiment conducted in the USA: a part of a corn field covered with a net, over which night flyers could not hunt, suffered 56% more damage from the caterpillars of pest butterflies.

In conditions middle zone bats in summer hunt insects en masse. During the night, one animal destroys up to a thousand mosquitoes, as well as numerous fields, gardens and vegetable gardens, whose flight occurs at night.

With the approach of cold weather and the disappearance of their main food, bats are looking for winter shelter , the temperature in which should not fall below 0ºС, and fall into suspended animation.

So these amazing creatures are experiencing an unfavorable season in the environment to which they have managed to adapt perfectly.

Awakening comes in the spring, when the first flying insects appear - and the tireless flyers again go out on night watch.

Useful video

In the video below you can see something about the habitat of bats:

These are mainly a variety of insects. Some large individuals eat fruit. Some species feed on fish. And the vampire bat from Central and South America bites other animals and feeds on the blood that flows from the wound. All bats are good hunters and can detect the slightest sounds and movements.

Types and names of bats

There are about 1000 various types bats, and it is not surprising that their feeding habits may differ. What does a bat eat? Most of these animals eat insects and are called insectivores. These bats especially love to eat mosquitoes, beetles and moths. And they eat them in huge quantities. For example, one little brown bat can eat more than 1,200 mosquitoes in just one hour. This is a species characterized by small body size. Average weight is approximately 14 grams, and the length reaches 8-9 cm.

The Indiana is a medium-sized bat that can range in color from brown to gray or black. They reach 2.5-5 cm in length as adults. Weight is about 7 grams. The Egyptian fruit bat (bat) is an animal that is a smaller variety and is about 15 cm long. However, they have a large wingspan that can reach two meters. They weigh at least 230 grams.

The giant golden crowned flying fox is a fairly rare species that is distinguished by its very long wings. One more rare species is kitty. What makes it unique is the way the bat looks. Her upturned nose, in appearance and shape, resembles a pig's snout; in addition, due to her tiny size, she was given the nickname bumblebee.

Vegetarians

Fruit bats are often referred to as flying foxes due to their resemblance to red foxes. They live in tropical forests and do not spend much time in dark caves, like many other species. Instead, they can be found hanging from fruiting banana palms and mango trees. Daily activity The animal's main activity is to search for food.

Their feeding habits are beneficial to the environment, as they also pollinate plants. Their favorite delicacies are figs, mangoes, dates and bananas. Fruit representatives of bats feed on fruits, seeds and nectar and are the largest representatives of their family.

Vampire bats

There are bats that eat birds, fish, frogs, lizards and even other bats. There are even species that drink blood. They are called vampire bats. There are only 3 species of them, and they all live in Central and South America. People shouldn't worry about this - vampire bats don't like to drink human blood.

They mainly prefer the blood of cows, sheep and horses. Vampire bats bite animals while they sleep and lick up the droplets that appear. To saturate one individual, approximately 2 teaspoons per day are needed. Thus, the cow or sheep often does not even have time to wake up, and the bat is already full. This fascinating creature has been associated with numerous legends over the centuries. This special kind The bat has a short snout instead of the standard conical one.

Structural features

Bats, which can vary in size depending on the species, have approximately the same body structure. Their hearing is well developed. They use it to find food and care for their young. Species that feed on insects and fish big ears help with echolocation. Typically, such echoes are received by the funnel-shaped ears, which are directed forward.

The sense of smell is also well developed and is used to find and identify certain foods. Fruit bats can find food by smelling ripe fruits. Bats are not blind; for example, the flying fox has a very good eyesight and use their eyes along with their excellent sense of smell to find food in the dark. In general, these bats see better in the dark. Most species see everything around them in black and white, but some frugivorous representatives have color vision.

Paws with powerful claws help the animals hang upside down on their perches, as well as catch and hold fish. Bats fly using their arms and wings, and they can also crawl through trees by moving a membrane between their body and their fifth toe. This is called an "elevator".

This mammal is covered with fur, which protects the body from the cold, and various options colors can serve as camouflage if you need to hide from danger. Mice keep their fur clean by licking it regularly, something similar is done by a cat.

A predator can also become a victim, or Who eats bats

Surprisingly, despite the fact that bats look quite scary, they themselves can become prey to a number of predators. Hawks and owls regularly kill and eat these little monsters. Snakes and carnivorous mammals(stoats, minks, weasels and raccoons) climb into shelters and attack defenseless sleeping bats.

There are many different predators in the world that can cause problems for bats. Tarantula spiders pose a danger to small species of bats. Even small birds can be cruel; they fly into caves and can peck bats to death. Then the birds pull them out and eat them.

Myths and misconceptions

1. “All bats carry disease.” In fact, less than 0.5% of the total carry the rabies virus. Additionally, rabid bats are rarely aggressive. For example, in the United States, only 40 cases of rabies infection from bats have been identified over the past 40 years.
2. "Bats get tangled in people's hair." Although bats can sometimes fly very close, especially when catching insects, they do not get stuck in people's hair because, thanks to their ability to echolocate, they can easily avoid such a large obstacle as a person.
3. "Bats drink human blood." The most famous are vampire mice. These amazing creatures have been found in Mexico, Central and South America. What does a vampire bat eat? It feeds on the blood of warm-blooded animals such as birds, horses and cattle. The process of eating food releases saliva containing an anesthetic, which reduces the likelihood that the animal will feel something. In general, these little bloodsuckers rarely cause much harm.
4. "Bats are blind." Although most species cannot distinguish colors, they can see at night using echolocation.

Bats are the only flying mammals that belong to the order Chiroptera and mainly lead night image life. Most females produce only one offspring per year. The gestation period lasts only a few weeks. Babies develop very quickly, and most can learn to fly within two to five weeks after birth.

They live relatively long, up to 30 years, which is not typical for small mammals. What a bat eats largely depends on its species. Carnivores eat insects, fish and even other bats, while vegetarians prefer pollen and fruits.