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The Importance of Bats
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11799 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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4 / 1987 |
2,153 Words |
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Merlin D. Tuttle
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Contrary to popular misconception, bats are among the most sophisticated, gentle, beneficial, and even likable animals on earth. There are no blind bats. Bats do not become entangled in people's hair, and they pose less of a threat to human health than do household pets.
Like dolphins, bats navigate and communicate using ultrasonic systems so sophisticated that they far surpass current scientific understanding. They also are highly intelligent, even trainable. A highly respected Australian neuroanatomist, John D. Pettigrew, recently discovered that one whole group, the flying foxes, share a unique brain organization previously thought to exist only in primates. This has triggered a heated debate as to whether or not these bats may be primates.
Although most people are aware of only one or two kinds, there are nearly a thousand species of bats, most as yet unstudied. They make up almost a quarter of all mammal species and come in an amazing diversity. They range from the world's smallest mammal - the bumblebee bat of Thailand, which weighs a third less than a penny - to giant flying foxes in Java, with up to six-foot wingspans. They occupy almost every habitat worldwide, except for the most extreme desert and polar regions, and they filled the night's skies long before man walked the earth.
Most are highly specialized for specific life-styles. Some 70 percent of bats eat insects. Many feed on fruit or nectar, and few are carnivores. These range from specialists that use huge feet and claws to gaff fish from ponds to frog-eating bats that use extraordinarily low-frequency hearing to locate and identify frogs by their calls. Despite their notoriety, vampires, which do drink the blood of cattle, account for less than a third of 1 percent of bat species and live only in Latin America.
Bats living in cold climates often have angora-like fur, while one, the naked bat of Southeast Asia, lives in hot climates and has no fur. Many are colorful, ranging from bright orange to snow white, and some have beautiful markings that rank them among the world's most attractive mammals. To the uninitiated, the enormous ears and strange-shaped nose leaves and facial flaps of some insect-eating bats may be ugly. Nevertheless, even these are beautiful to scientists who understand the sophistication of these bats' extraordinary navigational systems.
Nearly all our perceptions of bats reflect our level of understanding. Bats are feared most in temperate regions, such as the United States and Europe, where they are small and live in caves or other places difficult to observe. In China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, many bats have wingspans of several feet and conspicuously roost like birds in treetop colonies. In these places, bats are generally liked, often highly respected. For example, the Chinese view bats as symbols of good luck, prosperity, and happiness, displaying them liberally in fine art.
Pollination And Insect Control
Worldwide, bats are by far the most important controllers of night-flying insects, including many pest species, from cutworm and corn-borer moths to mosquitos. One of North America's most common bats, the little brown bat, is capable of capturing up to six hundred or more mosquito-sized insects
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