Without bats, we might not have any. Tequila is produced from the agave plant, which relies primarily on bats to pollinate its flowers and reproduce. So next time you order a tequila, be sure to raise your glass to the pollinating bats that helped to make it possible! Bats are famous for their ability to navigate and hunt by listening to the echoes of their ultrasonic calls, known as echolocation.
Eating insects is the most common diet among bats worldwide — a major benefit for our farmers. However, the role many of nectar-feeding bats play is just as important. Bats, like the Northern Blossom Bat Macroglossus minimus from Australia, pollinate the flowers of plants that produce nectar.
Scientists believe that many plants have evolved to attract bats, as they can carry significant amounts of pollen in their fur. And African Heart-nosed Bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from more than six feet away!
Only three bat species vampires feed on blood, and only one targets mammals. Limited to Latin America, scientists have discovered a potent anticoagulant in vampire bat saliva, which the bats use to keep blood from clotting, that has been developed into a medication to help prevent strokes in humans. Simply left alone, bats are harmless and highly beneficial.
They are fascinating creatures, vital to the balance of nature around the world. Like most wild animals, bats prefer to avoid contact with humans. But in situations where bats and humans come into close proximity, it is important to understand how to prevent negative outcomes for humans and bats.
In each of these situations, we discourage the general public from handling bats. See below for information about possible health risks that may apply. Research has revealed that more than 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning they can be communicable from animals to humans, and bats are not exceptional among wildlife as potential sources of human disease.
Over the last decade, increased surveillance and improved techniques for disease detection have implicated bats as likely reservoirs and vectors for a growing list of pathogens that can affect humans and domestic animals.
Rabies is a preventable viral infection of the central nervous system in mammals. Bats, like most mammals, can contract the rabies virus, but the vast majority never do. The virus is typically transmitted by the bite of an infected animal — anyone bitten by a bat or any other wild or unknown domestic animal should seek immediate medical attention.
People can, in rare instances, contract rabies if infectious material, such as saliva from a rabid animal, gets into their eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound. The U. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides information about Rabies here. Histoplasmosis is a respiratory disease caused by a fungus that grows in soil enriched by animal droppings, including those from bats.
Ninety percent of all reported cases in humans come from the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys and adjacent areas where warm, humid conditions favor fungal growth. The disease is rare or nonexistent in most of Canada and in the far northern and western United States.
The majority of bats in the United States are insectivores. They hunt at night and eat flying insects such as mosquitoes, beetles, and moths, many of which are considered pests. Bats provide an important ecological service by eating tons of insects. In a single midsummer night, the 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave in central Texas eat more than tons of insects. Not all bats eat insects. Some live on a diet of nectar and fruit. Bats that feed on nectar also serve as pollinators to nighttime blooming plants.
To attract these flying mammals, flowering plants have evolved a musty or rotten perfume. The smell is created by sulphur-containing compounds, which are uncommon in most floral aromas, but have been found in the flowers of many plant species that specialize in bat pollination. Vampire bats do exist, but there are none in the United States. The closest vampire bats are found in Mexico. Insect-eating bats hunt using a type of natural sonar called echolocation. They emit a high-frequency sound undetectable to people that bounces off surrounding objects.
When a sound hits an object, or better yet, an insect, it bounces back to the bat's pronounced ears and gives the bat an audible map for the shape, distance, and location of nearby objects.
Everything happens so quickly that a bat can make almost instant turns to catch a flying insect. A bat's echolocation system is so advanced and precise that scientists study bats to make sonar equipment for ships. Bats are mainly nocturnal, most often flying at dawn and dusk.
They fly very quickly and can make fast maneuvers. Bats congregate in large roosts during their winter hibernation and migration. In the fall and winter months, many species breed so that the offspring are born in the late spring. The births are timed with the return of insect prey.
Bats can have more than one offspring at a time. The babies are born hairless, blind, and without the ability to fly. They are completely dependent on their mother. Most of the bat species of Earth are nocturnal. Many bats in the world reside in caves and crevices on building and trees.
While bats are revered in some parts of the world and considered as a sign of good fortune, many societies in the world have many misconceptions about bats linking them to diseases and ill omen. Therefore bats are not protected in many parts of the world. The bat population is consequently threatened by loss of habitats due to changing climate and attacks from a deadly fungus. However, it is important to note that bats are essential in controlling the overall health of the ecosystem.
Flying foxes are ecological keystones. As they feast on fruit, they pollinate flowers and scatter seeds, ensuring that forests can thrive. As profits increased, so did concerns about losses. For many fruit growers , flying foxes became a culprit for any rotten mangos or chewed up lychees discovered on the ground below a tree.
Based on his calculations, Hardy believes that , fruit bats lived on Mauritius in Hardy calls for reducing the flying fox population to about 13, individuals—the number he estimates lived on the island in the s. Many fruit growers agree, and their lobbyists began to call for a cull. Politicians—whose success in elections typically depends on winning the rural vote—took heed. When in the government undertook its first large-scale cull, officials quickly realized that hunting bats near orchards was an ineffective means of meeting the 30,plus kill quota set for the cull.
So they began targeting bats deep in the forest, including in protected areas, where the animals concentrate to roost. Shortly after, however, the government began a third cull of 13, flying foxes, which recently concluded. Officially, the government has killed 51, flying foxes, but Florens and his colleagues believe the number is probably much higher. The fewer animals that remain, Kingston warns, the more vulnerable the remaining bats will be to natural disasters, disease, competition with nonnative species, and habitat loss.
After the first two culls, lychee production actually fell by 70 percent , likely, Florens reports in the Journal for Nature Conservation , because of a mix of weather and invasive fruit flies, birds, macaques, and rats.
Desperate to give the bats a reprieve, a group of researchers decided to sue the government. Fabiola Monty , an environmental scientist in Mauritius with the nonprofit group Human Rights in the Indian Ocean , acted as plaintiff, with Christian Vincenot, a bat ecologist and ecological modeler at Kyoto University, in Japan, advising.
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