Book III. River of No Return

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1. Why do bats have big ears?

Bats need big ears and good hearing to echolocate, that is, the use sound waves to navigate and find prey. The calls bats make through their noses and mouths reflect off objects and they need big ears to sense the echos. Bats can control their ears, moving them around, backwards and forwards to pick up sounds. Bats can hear things at least 40 feet away, and possibly longer. Bats can also smell, taste, feel, and see just like people do to sense the world around them.

2. Do bats build nests?

No, bats do not build nests like birds do. Instead they roost in crevices, tree hollows, and caves where they hang upside down by their feet or wedge their bodies into cracks. Some bats in the tropics make roosts by making tents out of big leaves.  Bat babies (pups) are born in maternal roosts where mothers and their pups live. Males generally live independently and separately or in smaller male only (bachelor) colonies. Mothers find and nurse their own young, even in large colonies where it seems impossible to find her baby in a nursery with millions of others. When a mother bat leaves the roost at night to feed, she remembers where she left her baby. When she returns, she calls out for her baby, her pup calls back, and then she sniffs her pup, ensuring it belongs to her.

3. Why are bats nocturnal?

Bats are nocturnal because there’s little competition for food resources with other animals at night.  Plus, being able to fly at night provides bats with plenty of nighttime flying insects, such as moths, a preferred prey. Bats also use darkness for protection from predators such as hawks. 

4. Where do bats go at night?

Bats are opportunistic and will go wherever they know they’ll find a meal, sometimes traveling up to 30-miles or more from their roost to find food. For example, if there’s a big flight of insects hatching from a stream, like midges or mayflies, they’ll forage in that area. Bats also have night roosts, where they’ll rest after feeding and digest their food for several hours. These tend to be in more open areas, such as under porch eves, with both males and females gathering and socializing. People who find guano on their deck, but no bats, likely have a night roost. If so, look up on the roof for signs of activity, like a bit of guano or a worn area, like something rubbing on the wood. At dawn, bats return to their day roosts, with males and females going their separate ways, with females roosting in maternity colonies with young and males roosting individually or with other males (bachelor colonies).

5. What is guano?

Guano refers to excrement from seabirds and bats. Where it has accumulated from large colonies of birds and bats, it has been mined as a fertilizer, as its exceptionally high in nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, key nutrients essential for plant growth. Bat guano pellets look like rodent droppings, but they easily break apart resembling coffee grounds, and they are sparkly, as they are full of insect parts. Bats cannot digest insect exoskeleton, so what passes through their gut are insect parts, including legs, wings, and antennae. Scientists identify what bats are feeding on by looking at guano through a microscope identifying the different insect parts.

6. Do bats have families?

Yes, bats have families, just like people do. Mothers generally have one young a year called pups, and occasionally twins. Some bats give birth to babies hanging upside down and catch them with their wings. Others hang from their thumbs right-side up and when the pup is born, the mother uses their tail membrane to catch it and help it move up towards her chest to nurse. Colonies of bats are like our own family and friends, with some related and some not.

7. How long does it take for bats to be fully grown?

Bat babies are born bald and blind; mothers nurse them for at least 6 to 10 weeks until they can fly and catch their own insect prey. When raising young, mothers stay fairly close to their roost, usually within a mile, and come back to feed their babies several times a night. When bat pups begin to fly, they’ll chase each other in the air, as if playing tag, to learn to fly and hunt insect prey. Mothers reach reproductive maturity after about a year. Bats live for about 20-years in the wild; in captivity they can live for 30-years or longer. 

8. Do bats make good pets?

Bats are adorable, but are wild animals, so do not make good pets. It’s illegal to have a bat as a pet in the U. S. and many other countries. Bats need to be allowed to live in their natural environments. Bats that could be easily caught are most likely sick and should not be handled. If you see a bat on the ground, put on gloves, get a dustpan and broom, and very gently push it on the dustpan and lift it to a higher area where it’s away from predators, such as cats, dogs, and people. The bat might be perfectly healthy, just tired from migrating thousands of miles and resting. If it doesn’t fly away after a day, call a local wildlife rescue group and someone will pick up the bat. Never handle a bat with bare hands as they will bite in self-defense and can carry rabies. If you are bit by a bat, immediately wash with soap and water and seek medical attention. Rabies is preventable; vaccinate your pets for rabies, including dogs and cats to prevent the spread of rabies. 

9. How so scientists study bats?

The more we know about bats, the more we can help protect them. For example, if we know where they live, we can protect their roosts. Scientists often study bats (micro) using acoustic surveys where bat echolocations are recorded with bat detectors to help identify bat species and abundance. Bat echolocation calls range in frequency from 20 to 200 kilohertz (kHz), depending on the species; human hearing tops out at around 20 kHz. Scientists also use radio transmitters to track bats, mist nets to trap them to identify them, and field surveys.

10. Describe how can you help bats.

One of the best things you can do for bats is to help spread the word that bats are very important animals and that they are not the scary things that most people think they are! Most people don't really understand bats and are afraid of them. You can tell them how bats are helpful to us, they eat lots of insects, helping to protect people and crops from pests. Also, bats in different parts of the world help pollinate flowers, including cactus in the desert southwest, and they scatter seeds, helping plants thrive. Bats are good, spread the word!