An Introduction to
Bats
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Introduction to Bats - Forestry Natural Resources and Wildlife - Lecture Slides, Slides of Wildlife Ecology
These are the lecture slides of Forestry Natural Resources and Wildlife. Key important points are: Introduction to Bats, Blood Sucking, Flying Rats, Bats Are Blind, Bats Won’T Fly, Only Way Rodents, Class Mammalia, Order Chiroptera, Suborder Microchiroptera, Bat Stats
Typology: Slides
2012/2013
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An Introduction to
Bats
BATS
Creepy, blind, blood-sucking RODENTS of the night….right?
Actually…..
- Those are all just BAT MYTHS
- Bats won’t fly into your hair or attack you
- They aren’t blind at all
- And they aren’t even rodents……
Nobody likes me….
The Only Way
Rodents Can Fly
So, What ARE Bats???
- Class Mammalia
- Order Chiroptera (“hand-wing”)
- Suborder Megachiroptera- flying foxes
- 1 Family, ~166 species
- Suborder Microchiroptera- micro bats
- 16 Families, ~759 species
- Suborder Megachiroptera- flying foxes
Bat Stats
- 4,200 species of mammals
- ~1,000 species of bats
- Of these, 88% are tropical
What do Bats Eat?
- FRUIT- “frugivory”
- FLOWERS- nectar or pollen
- CARNIVORES- birds, reptiles, amphibians
- FISH- highly specialized carnivores
- BLOOD- “sangrivory”
- INSECTS- aerial or foliage gleaners
How do Bats Fly?
- Bats are the only mammals capable of TRUE powered flight
What is Echolocation?
- Microbats use ECHOLOCATION for navigation and prey capture:
Animation from www.batcon.org.
More About Echolocation
- 1700’s: Lazarro Spallanzani first proposed bats could “see” with their ears
- 1930’s: Donald R. Griffin of Harvard coined term “echolocation”
- Not all bats echolocate- just Microchioptera
- Most echolocation calls are between 9 to 200+kHz
- Humans can only hear up to 20 kHz
- Bat detectors allow us to hear bat calls
- Can ID bat species by their echolocation calls
Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture
- The story of Mexican free-tailed bats in Central Texas - Bracken Cave: ~20 million Mexican free-tailed bats (single largest aggregation of mammals in the world) - Central Texas caves, including Bracken Cave, are summer maternity roosts for ~ 100 million Mexican free-tailed bats - It is estimated that these bats eat about 2 million lbs of insects every night
Photo from www.batcrew.com
Tadarida brasiliensis
Mexican Free-tailed
bat
Photo From BCI: www.batcon.org Docsity.com
The Problem
Helicoverpa zea
Corn Earworm
“Bats Aloft” Partners
- Dr. Gary F. McCracken, University of Tennessee
- Dr. Wayne Wolfe and Dr. John Westbrook of USDA Research Station in College Station, TX
- U.S. Weather Service
- Bat Conservation International