In case you haven’t heard it’s international Bat Week.
This week, October 24-31, we celebrate furry flying mammals, learn about their benefits to mankind, and help them survive in our ever changing world.
Did you know these cool facts about bats?
- There are more than 1,300 species of bats on earth, 40 in the U.S.
- Bat wings are webs of skin between their fingers (forelimbs). Bats have more bones in their wings than birds do.
- Bats have “thumbs” on the leading end of their wings that help them grasp and climb. The tropical Spix’s Disk-winged Bat roosts on leaves so he has suction cups where his thumbs would be. Click here to see.
- According to batcon.org, some male bats sing like songbirds to defend territory and attract mates.
- Most bats reproduce very slowly, only one pup per year.
- An amazing number of bat species are threatened with extinction — even some that live in Pennsylvania.
Watch the video above to see Rodrigues fruit bats (they’re Critically Endangered) then stop by the National Aviary in Pittsburgh to see the Megabats shown below — Malayan Flying Foxes.
Happy Bat Week!
Learn more about bats at Bat Conservation International.
(video from the San Diego Zoo, photos by Denmarsh Photography courtesy of the National Aviary)
Just saw Hope, I think, at Cathedral of Learning nest There between 12:05 and 12:20. Green band on right leg?
I enjoy bats. I live in a highrise building and every summer (except for the past two) I have had a bat take a rest, clinging on my balcony walls during the middle of the night. If I was awake at night, I could turn off all lights in my room and slightly part my curtains enough to view the little bat. If I opened the curtains too much, the bat would notice me and fly off.
I’m not sure why, but when no bat was resting at my balcony at night, if I would go out on to the balcony, a stream of bats would fly up to the balcony and flutter by me. Scared the heck out of me when they would do that. Talk about silent flight though. I could see them coming in, but they made not a sound. This all surprised me because I thought bats were shy around humans.
Oh yeah, I had bat guano to deal with too on my balcony as a result of their “hanging around” (pun intended).