wild thing
A Big Brown Bat hangs from a tree branch.
By egenevieve Wall
Up, up and away: Why we should go to bat for bats!
by genevieve Wall
On a warm Spring night when the earth is damp and the air is full of frog song, a sudden silhouette wheeling in erratic acrobatics in the forests and meadows of Montgomery County may catch your eye. The nimble fliers above your head snatch their prey on the wing, devour thousands of insects each night, and fill the air with pulses of high-frequency sound mostly beyond human hearing. These creatures are bats.
Bats, like humans, belong to the class Mammalia. Like other mammals, they give birth to live young, nourish them with milk, and grow hair; but unlike other mammals, bats are capable of self-powered flight. Bats are in the order Chiroptera, which means“ handwing.” This name is a clue to their evolutionary history: the structure of their wings evolved from modified forearm and finger bones. Bats can move each of these elongated fingers independently, which allows them to control their wings with impressive precision and agility.
Worldwide, there are over 1,400 known species of bats. They range in size from the tiny inchlong bumblebee bat of Thailand and Myanmar to the giant, five-foot wingspan of the golden-crowned flying fox of the Philippines. Bats are generally nocturnal; they emerge around dusk to forage for food and return to their roosts by dawn. Different species of bats rely on different food sources. Most bat species— including all of the ones that live in Maryland— eat insects; however, around 400 species feed on fruit, and around 100 species consume nectar. A dozen species eat meat, and three Central and South American species lap small droplets of blood( usually from wild mammals, farm animals, or birds). Scientists are studying the anticoagulants in these species’ saliva to investigate potential treatments for blood clots in humans. And that’ s just one of many reasons why bats are valuable to people!
If you’ ve ever enjoyed a ripe mango, savored plantain, or sipped on a margarita, you may have bats to thank. Many bat species across the world play important roles in pollinating plants and spreading their seeds. Fruit-feeding bats spread seeds in their nutrient rich guano, and nectar-feeding bats trap dusty coats of pollen in their fur and fertilize flowers as they forage. The United States has three species of nectar-feeding bats, all of which can only be found in the American Southwest.
The state of Maryland is home to 10 species of bats, all of which eat insects. Of our ten species of bats, four are“ tree bats,” which either migrate to warmer climates during the winter or hibernate in tree cavities, under bark, or in leaf litter. The other six species are“ cave bats,” which hibernate in caves.
Bat species provide important ecosystem services to humans. A single Little Brown Bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects per hour, and a pregnant or nursing mother bat can easily eat 4,000 insects per night. A 2011 analysis
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