Most species of bats have tails that is used to help them fly and catch insects. You can see the tail in the picture above.
Bats are rare but interesting creatures that one can only see at night. Many people fear bats, partly because of their unpleasant appearance of association with the dark. Other people fear that bites bite.
What do Bats Eat
Bats eat different types of food, which they mostly acquire by hunting using mouth and tail. The majority of the bats eat insects, which is the reason they are categorized as insectivores. The most preferred food types of bats are mosquitoes, beetles, and moths.
One interesting fact about bats is that a single creature can eat 500 insects in an hour. This is how incredible bats eat, yet a single colony of bats might have millions of these creatures.
Frugivores
Some bat species like eating fruits, pollen from the flowers and seeds. Bats that fall under this category are called frugivores. Their most preferred plant foods include dates, mangroves, figs, and banana plants. Experts claim that some of these frugivores drink the sugar water from feeders of the hummingbirds.
Vampire bats
Similarly, there are bat species that eat fish and birds. Others feed on frogs, other bats ad lizards. Some bast can even drink blood for food. These types of bats are called vampire bats. There are three types of bats under this category, and all are found in the Central and Southern parts of the American continent.
Something that should not be a cause of the alarm is that vampire bats dislike drinking human blood. Their preferred creatures for blood are sheep, horses, and cows. Vampire bats extract blood from the sleeping animal by making a small cut before lapping a small amount of blood.
Fortunately, these creatures do not need a lot of blood for survival, but around two teaspoonfuls in a day will be good for the bats to go. The amount of blood is too little that the sleeping animal may not even wake up when the vampire bat feeds on their blood.
How long do bats live?
Bats have been in existence for about 50 million years now. Many reasons explain why these creatures survived for that long and under different environmental conditions. For instance, bats have a highly adaptive body designed for flying. They also possess an accurate sense of echolocation, making them count in the list of the hardiest and the most long-lasting creatures to have ever existed.
Nevertheless, bats do die for sure. But the lives they live are relatively longer, even when compared to some bird species. With more than 1000 bat species, it is not easy to tell exactly how long bats live. This is because every species has its unique lifespan. However, researchers have established that most bats die after 20 years, which is reasonable for a long period. Bats are not birds.
Experts claim that a bat that lives for 30 years is similar to a human being who lives for 100 years. On average, 20 years is an adequate period for any bat species. Factors like species, diseases, predation, hibernation and migration, and food availability are critical factors that affect the lifespan of a bat.
Interesting facts
We have seen that there are more than 1000 bat species. Some bats can be as huge as a small do, while others can be as small as a bee. The flying foxes are the largest known bats. The wings of the flying horses are about 2 meters in length while they weigh about 1.5 kilograms. The smallest bats weigh as little as two grams. They live in a nest. Interestingly, bats are more closely related to humans than they are to rats o mice.
Types of bats
List of the most common bat types you could easily come across:
Indiana bats-usually medium and black, brown, or grey.
Fruit bat- a megabat category called flying fox at times.
Vampire bat- have a cone-shaped flat muzzle bumblebee bat, which is the smallest known bat.
Little brown bat
Egyptian fruit bat
Giant golden bat
Types of bats without tails:
Bumblebee
