Bats! (Stuff I Compiled Teaching a Halloween Themed Science Camp)

  Bat Faces:

Bat Ears:

Bat Noses:

Bat Feeding Methods:

Some places they live:

Neat facts I learned (mostly from my science teacher mom, Lucy-Kate!):

• Bats are closer related to humans than they are mice/rats.
• 900 species worldwide
• Mexican free-tailed bats can migrate up to 1,300 miles
• Largest: flying fox--6 ft wing spam
• Smallest: bumblebee bat from Thailand--2 oz weight
• 70% of bat species are 'microbats'--typically insectovores
• 30% are megabats--typically frugivores
• Bat specialist Merlin "Batman" Tuttle has estimated that a single mouse-eared bat can catch up to 600 mosquitoes in just one hour
• Frog-hunting bats, found in tropics, can tell if a frog is poisonous or too big to ear just by listening to the frog's call
• Some bats echolocation is fine-tuned enough to "see" something the width of a human hair
• Often bear one pup a year
• Many fruit eating bats are -vital- for seed dispersal
• Bat echolocation often uses multiple frequencies--high pitched that goes straight out and a lower pitched tone that is more diffuse.  Based on the percent reflection the bats can pin point where the reflection is coming from.  
• Tree lures bats with specially shaped leaves that sound pretty.