Bats belong to the order Chiroptera class of mammals. This is one of the most numerous orders in the biological classification: it unites more than 20 families and about 1,300 species.
The bat is the only flying mammal of all living fauna. The lifestyle of these unusual animals and their repulsive appearance have given rise to many myths and legends. Since ancient times, people have experienced a strong antipathy towards bats, considering them vampires, the embodiment of evil spirits and demons. In fact, bats are harmless and even provide some benefits.
What does a bat look like and what color?
The bat looks like a small animal; instead of arms, it has peculiar wings with several membranes, like the legs of a toad. These mice mainly feed on insects, but there are also large individuals that eat other bats, as well as small birds and rodents.
Appearance of the animal:
- Below we present photographs where you can see what the animal looks like. They differ in color, habitat and appearance. Depending on the continent where they live, their color differs, as does the fur on their body.
- The mouse is distinguished by not very large eyes, as well as four legs, two of which are wings. The most interesting thing is that the animals and ordinary rodents are not related at all and do not even belong to the same class.
- Ordinary mice are rodents, and bats are bats. They got their name because of their small size and squeak, like a rodent. The most interesting thing is that these are the only mammals that can actively fly. There are no other animals among mammals that are distinguished by their ability to fly.
Baby
Varieties
A vampire
Description
Many people don't know whether a bat is a bird or an animal. Chiropterans have wings and can fly, but bats are representatives of the animal world. This mouse is the only animal on the planet that moves through the air with the help of wings. Central America became their birthplace. These animals do not tolerate cold well, so they prefer the mild climate of Asia or the territory of the Primorsky Territory. The animal belongs to the order of placental mammals, the species Chiroptera. Let's look at what a bat looks like.
They differ from each other in appearance and size. The common body size is from 3 to 10 cm, but there are also special individuals - false vampires. Their size is 40-50 cm, and their weight is up to 200 grams. The bat's coat is thick and soft. It is usually gray, black or brown in color. There are animals with a yellowish or orange color. Such a bright fur color is characteristic of the Mexican fish-eating mouse.
The Honduran bat has white fur and yellow nose and ears. There is no fur on the wings. The muzzle resembles a pig's snout with mouse-like elements. There are individuals whose bodies have no fur coat at all. There are such representatives in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Bats have different internal structures of the skull and teeth. The long-tongued leaf-nosed bat has a long tongue with which it collects nectar. The elongated shape of the head is needed to accommodate the tongue.
Bats have a heterodont dental system, so they have canines, incisors, molars and molars. Stronger and longer teeth are usually found in animals that feed on thick-shelled insects.
The number of teeth varies among different species of bats. For example, vampires have only 20 of them, while small mice can have up to 38. Vampires have sharp fangs to make bites that draw blood. Fruit-eating bats have teeth similar to the main part of a flower, involved in the formation of the fruit.
Most representatives have a horn on their nose, reminiscent of a rhinoceros nose, and on their heads are large ears, similar to those of a hare. The auditory organ improves the mammal's echo sounding. The bat skeleton has several features. The forelimbs are of an unusual shape, one finger of which has a curved shape with a sharp end. The “hands” start from the hind limbs, reach the forearm and become elongated fingers. It turns out to be a kind of frame, covered with a dense membrane of skin.
The membrane serves as a wing for its owner. In cold times, the mouse wraps itself in its membrane like a cape. Bats are superior in mobility and aerodynamics to birds and insects. The flight speed of bats is from 10 to 50 km/h. Among the entire variety of mice, the Brazilian folded lip reaches the highest speed of up to 160 km/h. The membrane is greatly stretched, approximately 4 times, without being damaged. During flight, the bat makes synchronous movements with its wings, pressing them tightly towards itself, thereby improving aerodynamics.
These mammals have very flexible wings, which allows them to turn 180 degrees without making a turn. A bat can hover in the air like an insect.
It is known that bats cannot see well, but they have excellent hearing. Many breeds of mice have tragus on their ears, which improves and enhances the perception of sounds. False horseshoe bats can detect the rustling of insects under grass or among foliage. Images for them appear in black and white. Echolocation helps them navigate in the dark. Ultrasonic impulses save you from collisions with possible obstacles. However, bats are not completely blind; some see well and can catch prey using their eyes.
A well-developed sense of smell helps to find their cubs after a night hunt, identify a stranger in a colony, or find sources of food.
Maximum bat size and weight
A distinctive feature is its relatively small size. The smallest representative can weigh only 2 g, and the body length is 3 cm. The largest individual reaches a wingspan of up to 75 cm, but its weight is only 200 g. The wings have a membranous structure, and are very thin.
Chiropterans have teeth, since they belong to the order of predators, and have fangs, incisors, and molars. They need teeth to chew insects and small animals. They are distinguished by large ears; this is not a structural feature at all, but a way to recognize the terrain.
Cute creature
Blood sucking vampire bats
There are also blood-sucking animals called vampires. Their appearance is not much different from ordinary bats, but they have special characteristics. Their other teeth are less developed, but their fangs are huge and very sharp. With their help, they pierce the victim's skin and feed on its blood. Unfortunately, they do not eat anything other than this liquid. The digestive system is not able to break down insects.
Vampire bats:
- Such mammals are found in Africa, mainly in warm regions. They find an area on the victim's body that is not covered with fur, bite through it and feed on blood. On average, a meal lasts 20-40 minutes. During this time, the animal drinks approximately 40 ml of blood.
- The same weight as the animal itself. After a meal, the animal cannot take off due to its increased weight, so very liquid urine is excreted, which mainly consists of blood plasma. The remaining nutrients, as well as proteins, are digested in the stomach.
- Most often, such mammals bite cattle and small animals, and there are cases of attacks on people. They prefer to bite sleeping prey that does not resist.
- The animal's saliva contains an anesthetic, making the bite virtually painless. Saliva also contains an anticoagulant, which is why the blood does not clot and continues to flow out of the wound. There have been cases where blood flowed from the hole for 8 hours.
A vampire
Reproduction and lifespan
It is difficult for scientists to find out in detail how exactly the courtship and subsequent mating of these creatures occurs; they prefer to lead a very secretive lifestyle.
But at certain periods, very interesting sounds can be heard near the habitats of bats. These are the courtship of gentlemen for their ladies and their calls for love. Bats inhabiting regions with favorable conditions and a warm climate are ready for mating rituals at any time and are able to give birth to offspring twice a year.
In areas with harsh weather conditions, mating of these winged mammals occurs immediately before hibernation. And this reveals another feature of these animals. A bat, or rather a female of this suborder, is not able to become pregnant immediately, but some time after contact with a partner.
After all, according to nature’s plan, her eggs will be fertilized only after spring awakening. Until this moment, the male’s sperm remains, as it were, in her body in reserve. The duration of gestation is also impossible to say with precision, because the timing turns out to be too different. And they depend not only on the species, but also on environmental conditions, in particular temperature. But when the time comes, two or three cubs are born. At first they live in the tail pouch. And a week later they get out of there, but continue to live, feeding on mother’s milk.
Thus, the babies gradually gain strength, and after a month they are already able to feed on their own.
Nocturnal lifestyle of bats
These bats live in dark places and go out to hunt only at night. In rare cases, whole flocks can fly out during the daytime, preferably in the late afternoon. In most cases, if it is not a vampire mouse, they feed on small insects.
They can sleep under cacti, burrow in caves and under stones. The hunt begins at night. They navigate and find their prey using ultrasonic parameters, thanks to their echo location. Some night moths have the ability to deflect ultrasonic waves so as not to become a victim of the animal. This is a unique phenomenon due to which animals cannot detect a mole cricket, even using their location abilities.
Night predator
Population and species status
Photo: Baby flying snake
Most bat species have endangered status. Some subspecies have vulnerable status, requiring constant monitoring.
The population in the 20th century was mainly negatively affected by agricultural development, environmental pollution, and habitat loss. But at the same time, there were cases of deliberate extermination, destruction of nests and treatment of roofs and attics of houses with repellents. Studies have also been conducted in the United States that have shown that wind power plants also affect the number of bats. Bats die from collisions with wind turbine blades and from lung damage due to pressure drops near the blades.
But because bats are central to the ecosystem, measures are being taken to protect them. In Europe, they are actually the only natural regulator of the number of insects that are active at night. Thanks to bat conservation efforts, populations of some subspecies have stabilized and some have increased.
The European Environment Agency, based on a study of nearly 6,000 nesting sites, concluded that bat numbers increased by 43% between 1993 and 2011. But these are average numbers, and, unfortunately, the numbers of some subspecies continue to decline.
What do bats eat in the wild?
In one flight, this mammal is capable of eating insects, which by weight make up a third of the mass of the animal itself, which indicates the gluttony of the mammal. These animals have a very good metabolism, so they quickly digest food. If this mammal is a vampire, then it is capable of eating quite a lot per night, approximately as much blood as it weighs. Surprisingly, bats can share blood with their brothers. They remember which animal is greedy and will not feed it.
How many wings does a bat have?
In these mammals, the wing structure is significantly different from birds. Unlike birds, bats have more flexible partitions and very thin skin. Thanks to special muscle fibers, which are located inside the soft part of the wing and act as peculiar receptors and sensors, the wing can be stretched or weakened. Thanks to this unusual wing structure, the animals can develop very high speeds and, in general, their movements are more maneuverable than those of birds. Although it is much more difficult to control movable wings.
The animal has only two wings with thin membranes. Moreover, the wing does not always end with claws. Vampire bats keep their offspring near them longer than other bats. The female spends approximately 9 months nursing the baby. Oddly enough, the female gives birth to only one animal per year. The funny thing is that bats are assistants to people who are engaged in agriculture.
Chiroptera
This is explained by a good appetite and the ability to eat large enough insects that destroy crops and gardens. However, at the same time, the animals cause great damage, as they can eat fruits and fruit trees. In addition, they carry rabies and other dangerous diseases. There is a legend that animals in flocks in Africa attack people, sucking blood. In fact, in most cases, bats do not attack people; they prefer animals as victims. However, there are still cases of bites, but no one has died from these bites.
In the last century, a myth appeared that says that bats can cling to hair and get stuck in it. In fact, these are fictions; perhaps in the last century some ladies wore their hair up and visited caves in order to see what was inside. Maybe a couple of animals got stuck in my hair. But mammals do not experience any pleasure from this. Therefore, if you wear a regular hairstyle, you are unlikely to get a bat tangled in your hair.
In a cave
What to feed a bat at home?
Many people think that this is a good option for a pet, but this is actually not the case. Bats are unlikely to be able to recognize their owner in a person and understand why he feeds them. Therefore, a person will not receive any return.
Bat in the house:
- In addition, this mammal needs a lot of space to fly. Without flying, they get fat very quickly and die. Almost all bats feed on insects in large quantities.
- Accordingly, you will have to spend a lot of time and effort to accumulate a large number of insects for the animal every day. You can feed them with fruits, but not all bats will eat them. Still, most of the diet is insects.
- There is an opinion that any bat is a vampire and sucks blood. Actually no, only three subspecies are vampires, and there are very few of them.
- You can become infected with rabies from bats, but they are nocturnal, practically do not attack people, and only 8 cases of rabies infection are known in history. Accordingly, the likelihood of contracting this disease is extremely low.
The colony
Features of bats
Bats belong to the order Chiroptera. But they are not “relatives” of ordinary mice. They are considered primates. These animals are nocturnal, despite their rather poor eyesight, and are perfectly oriented in the dark. Bats emit ultrasound, which helps to accurately distinguish small stones from insects over long distances. It is thanks to echolocation that they move in the dark. Below are some more interesting facts about bats.
- Life cycle. Bats live longer than dogs. On average, the lifespan of a “mystical” animal is 25-30 years.
- Dimensions. Bats, depending on the species, may have different parameters. Some individuals do not exceed the dimensions of a bumblebee in size. But there are also real giants, whose wingspan is 2 m.
- Ancient inhabitants. According to archaeological excavations, bats inhabited our planet approximately 55 million years ago. These animals have been practically untouched by evolution. Their remains are no different from modern individuals.
- Body temperature. Can vary from −7ºС to +48ºС.
- State of numbness. In winter, bats, deprived of the opportunity to get their own food, prefer to do nothing. Goes into a sleep state. This numbness can last up to eight months. The animal independently slows down metabolic processes and lowers body temperature. In the event of severe frosts, they can turn into real “icicles”, but with the arrival of warmth they thaw and continue their life activity again.
Bats breed once a year. Babies are conceived during wintering. The offspring are never numerous. Usually in the summer only one mouse is born. Sometimes two cubs may be born.
Area
These animals choose secluded, dark and completely safe shelters during the daytime. In the wild, they settle in rock crevices, caves, abandoned burrows and hollows, on the slopes of dunes, even in the recesses of walls.
Human activity is leading to the destruction of natural bat habitats. The animals are forced to look for new shelters. They quickly adapt to the new environment and settle next to humans. The winged ones inhabit abandoned adits and mines, attics, cellars, cellars and forgotten bell towers. Uninvited guests can be found in haystacks and on balconies.
Bats are unable to take off from the ground because they have rather large wings. Therefore, they choose places to rest from which they can throw themselves headfirst.
Nutrition and main types
Despite the vampirism attributed to them, most species are quite peaceful and vegetarians. However, not all. Food preferences depend on the type of mouse. More detailed information is provided in the table.
Table - Types of bats
| Species name | Description | What do they eat? |
| White (tailless) | — They have a length of up to 4.5 cm, small ears and an unusual nose; — live in Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua; — settle in the huge leaves of heliconia, forming a family of 5-6 individuals | Fruits |
| Vechernitsy | — Inhabit North Africa and European countries; - have large sizes (length 10-50 cm); — fly at a speed of 60 km/h; - live in deciduous forests | — Beetles; - butterflies; - small songbirds |
| Fruit (dogs or foxes) | — Live in the forests of Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam; - distinguished by an elongated muzzle; - the body reaches 42 cm, and the wingspan is 1.7-2 m; - settle in trees; - live in huge colonies | - Bananas; - papaya; - grapes; - coconuts |
| Smooth-nosed | - They have a smooth muzzle without any cartilaginous growths; - found in all countries where woody vegetation grows | — Insects; - fish |
| Ushany | - They have large ears; - distinguished by short and wide wings; - the body reaches a length of 5-6 cm; - found in Europe, Asia, North Africa | — Beetles; - butterflies; - mosquitoes |
| Horseshoe bats | - They have a cartilaginous growth in the area of the nose that resembles a horseshoe; — take off immediately after sunset; - hunt only in the first half of the night; - live in the Caucasus | Insects |
| Nightwomen | — Inhabit all countries and continents, except the Arctic; - fly out to hunt in complete darkness; - have a high degree of adaptability, can live in any conditions; - fly calmly and slowly | By night insects |
| Vampire | - They have weak echolocation; - have developed hearing; - have infrared receptors; - inhabit only South and Central America | Blood of birds and animals (sometimes they can drink blood from a sleeping or exhausted person) |
Where do bats live?
City residents believe that it is impossible to find bats in such an area. In fact, this is not so; bats also settle in big cities, but away from high-rise buildings and high-rise buildings.
Where do bats live:
- They can be found in forest belts, near water bodies. There are a lot of insects in such places, so there is a lot of food for mammals. If in summer it is quite difficult to find animals in a big city, then closer to autumn they can fly near high-rise buildings.
- Closer to winter, these mammals look for places where they can take shelter and hide from the frost. Therefore, they are often found under window sills and often fly into apartments to hide from the cold. They prefer to spend the winter in ventilation hatches, or hide on the roof, between the slabs of houses.
- Without food, an individual that feeds on insects can live a long time. The trouble is that a large amount of moisture is lost through the wings. Even if there is no food, it is necessary to have a source of water nearby. In this case, she can live quite a long time. Otherwise, its wings dry out and the mammal dies.
On the rocks
Optimal wintering sites
So, where do bats hibernate, do bats hibernate in winter, and where do they sleep?
To successfully overwinter, bats need reliable, draft-free shelter with a temperature of 7-8 degrees to zero (but not lower) and a humidity of 80 to 100%.
In the middle zone, such a winter environment is created in dungeons, caves and basements , mines and adits, in the log cabins of deep wells, in attics, and in the hollows of old trees.
Animals often move to wintering shelters in colonies numbering up to several hundred individuals. Large communities of bats hibernate in empty abandoned pillboxes from the war, in the forts of the Brest Fortress.
Finding a suitable place is not easy, so winged mammals perfectly remember not only the attic, cave or basement itself, but also the specific area where they are located in it. From year to year, bats return exactly to the same place where they have already managed to safely spend the winter.
Body temperature, bat myopia
There is a legend that bats are blind. They actually see, but their vision is not the same as that of humans. In most cases, echo location, that is, ears, helps them navigate in space. Therefore, most animals have large ears.
Echolocation and blindness of bats:
- With their help, they hear sounds and can communicate with each other. A lot of research was carried out on the animals, they were covered with varnish, their eyes were blindfolded to understand how they moved.
- Only several decades later they found out that these animals orient themselves in space, not at all with the help of their eyes and wings. They do this using their ears, that is, the echo of the location.
- They emit sound waves that people cannot hear, the rays bounce off the surface, and these residual vibrations are picked up by locators. Such sense organs help to navigate in space.
Cute animal
Appearance
Bat, description: most of the animal’s body is devoted to the wings. If you do not take them into account, you can note a miniature body with a short neck and an elongated head. The mouth slit of the animals is large, through which sharp teeth can be seen. Some species of bats charm people with their pretty faces, while others frighten people with their unusual nose shape, disproportionately large ears and amazing growths on their heads.
The fruit dog is considered the cutest bat of the fruit bat family: it has large open eyes and an elongated nose, similar to a fox. Interestingly, the names of some types of mice were given based on the shape of the animals’ noses: pig-nosed, horseshoe-nosed, smooth-nosed. The white bat has a kind of “horn” on its muzzle, giving its nose the shape of a petal. Thanks to this device, the animal's forward-facing nostrils capture odors faster and more efficiently.
The bulldog mouse has a no less specific appearance: on its muzzle in the transverse direction there is a cartilaginous fold running above the nose from one ear to the other. The cartilaginous roller brings the edges of the ears together, increasing their area for more perfect hearing, necessary for orientation in space during flight.
The large ears of the long-eared bat are an equally effective acquisition for chiropterans for perfect echolocation. The frightening appearance of vampires served as the basis for legends that predatory flying bats are capable of attacking humans in search of fresh blood. Is this true or a myth? Read the article about bat bites. You can “read” about the mouse’s lifestyle and even nutrition by looking at the animal’s face. For example, fruit lovers do not need the powerful locators needed by flying representatives that traverse their surroundings at night. But their nostrils are wider: they search for food based on smells.
Structure
Birds have adapted to flight thanks to lightweight cellular bones, air sacs in the lungs, and feathers that are heterogeneous in structure and function. Flying bats do not have all this, and the skin membranes can hardly be called wings. How do bats fly? The flight of mice is similar to the flight of the flying machine of Leonardo da Vinci, who adopted from nature the idea of the structure of the wing of a flying mammal. A continuous membrane of skin, not penetrated by air, “covers” the air masses from above, which allows the animals to push off from them and fly.
Skeleton and wings
The skeleton of a bat has its own characteristics. The limbs of bats are modified: they serve as the backbone for the wing. The humerus of these animals is short, and the bones of the forearm and the last 4 fingers are elongated in order to increase the area of the flight “mantle”. A fibrous skin fold is stretched from the neck to the fingertips of the animals. The thumb with a prehensile claw is not included in the wing; the animal needs it for grasping. The rear (interfemoral) part of the membrane is stretched between the hind legs and the long tail.
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Sense organs
Bats' response to light: The bat's retina lacks cones, the receptors responsible for daytime vision. Their vision is twilight and is provided by rods. Therefore, during the day, animals are forced to sleep, since in daylight they see poorly. Some representatives have eyes covered with bizarre folds of skin.
This once again confirms the hypothesis that mice do not orient themselves in space using a visual analyzer. Close relatives of bats, fruit bats, also belonging to the order Chiroptera, have cones. These animals can also be seen during the day. The secondary role of the visual analyzer for animals was revealed during a simple experiment: when the animals were blindfolded, they did not stop navigating their surroundings. When the same was repeated with the ears, the mice began to bump into walls and objects in the room.
How are bats born?
The mating process in bats is quite interesting. In males, sperm matures in the summer, since there is a lot of food at this time. It accumulates in the testes. The mating process itself occurs at the end of autumn, or even in winter, when the animals are half asleep and hide in secluded places, huddled for the winter.
How are bats born?
- Moreover, even a fertilized egg inside the female may not immediately implant into the uterus. The fertilization process will only occur if conditions are favorable. That is, sperm can remain in a female’s body for several months, without fertilization occurring.
- Typically the gestation process is 1-9 months. It all depends on the individual species of bat. Females protect their offspring when they fly away to hunt, leaving them inside the colony. The female most often gives birth to babies head up.
- When the baby comes out, it makes a characteristic squeak. It is by this squeak that a mother recognizes her baby from a crowd of other animals. In case of danger, the baby clings to the mother's nipple with his teeth, digging his claws into the fur. Thus, the mother carries the baby to a safe place. Indeed, females are able to recognize their children by squeaking among the colony.
Animal
Distribution area
Various species of these animals are widespread throughout the world, with the exception of Antarctica, the Arctic and some oceanic islands. A large number of bats inhabit tropical and subtropical countries.
Representatives of the order Chiroptera are nocturnal animals. During the day, they hide in their shelters, these can be caves, crevices in rocks, various buildings, cozy places underground, where they hang upside down, gathering in huge flocks. At night, the day just begins for them and they fly out of their homes in search of food.
Bats living in countries with temperate and cool climates hibernate during the cold season, which lasts up to 8 months. When winter sets in, some individuals can migrate over a distance of about 2 thousand km, flying up to 35 km in one night.
How long does a bat live?
Babies' eyes open at 5-10 days. At first they are completely hairless, the weight of the cub is half the weight of the mother. After about 3-5 weeks, the baby takes its first flight. Under the strict guidance of his mother, he learns to hunt and get his own food. Usually babies are considered mature at the age of four months. They live approximately 5-10 years. Some individuals can live 12 years at home. But this is only if there is a place to fly and good food. They can fly quite far, covering approximately 50 km per day.
Who eats bats, who hunts bats from birds?
There is a lot of information regarding what eats bats. Oddly enough, not so long ago there were cases of tit attacks on animals. Indeed, some birds hunt bats, sometimes even in flight. Sometimes these are large birds, such as eagles, and crows become real bat hunters. However, catching such prey is quite difficult, due to the fact that it develops enormous speed.
Animal
How to attract a bat at home?
A bat flying into a house causes hysterics, as well as the reading of prayers among elderly residents of the apartment. This animal is associated with black magic, so there are many signs regarding the animal flying into the house. You can find out about them in the article “A bat flew into an apartment or house: a sign .
How to attract a bat at home:
- It is necessary to get rid of and catch the animal. To do this, it is advisable to use humane methods, that is, those that do not lead to the death of the mammal. There is no need to kill the animal.
- Please note that these animals are carriers of rabies and a large number of viruses. To protect yourself from infection, you need to wear gloves and contact the animal using a towel or cloth.
- On the street, bats are caught using nets or white cloth. Chiropterans are nocturnal animals; they react quite aggressively to white light and fly towards it.
Animals
cause a lot of trouble to people involved in agriculture, and not at all because they drink the blood of animals. This mammal is a carrier of rabies and other infections. It is noteworthy that vampire bats themselves are immune to rabies, and therefore are insensitive to it. They most often live in flocks; they also prefer to bite prey in company, not alone.
Adaptation to the characteristics of the environment
Chiroptera creatures demonstrate amazing adaptability to the most extreme temperature conditions. They can withstand both an increase in body temperature up to 40 degrees and a decrease to zero.
The feeding methods of winged animals are also very diverse and correspond to the environment in which they live and reproduce.
The main contrasts occur in the tropical zone, where some species consume purely vegetarian flower nectar and fruit pulp, while others consume the blood of larger mammals. However, the majority of bats prefer to hunt insects . In rare cases, small vertebrates such as frogs and songbirds become their prey.
REFERENCE . The benefits that bats bring to farm crops were clearly demonstrated by an experiment conducted in the USA: a part of a corn field covered with a net, over which night flyers could not hunt, suffered 56% more damage from the caterpillars of pest butterflies.
In the middle zone, bats hunt insects in large numbers . During the night, one animal destroys up to a thousand mosquitoes, as well as numerous pests of fields, gardens and vegetable gardens, whose flight occurs at night.
With the approach of cold weather and the disappearance of their main food, bats look for a winter shelter , the temperature in which should not fall below 0ºC, and fall into suspended animation.
So these amazing creatures survive an unfavorable season in the environment to which they have managed to adapt perfectly.
Awakening comes in the spring , when the first flying insects appear - and the tireless flyers again go out on night watch.
Mass destruction of insect pests in the dark, when birds are inactive, brings undoubted benefits to gardening and farms. If you provide bats with suitable shelter houses, the winged animals will take up residence in them and will work properly instead of insecticides.
Bats often become unwanted neighbors of humans, settling in the attics and balconies of houses and apartments. Some people do not consider it necessary to kick out guests, but such a neighborhood has more disadvantages than advantages. If you decide to get rid of them, do not forget that some of their species are listed in the Red Book and their destruction is prohibited. Therefore, be patient and achieve the peaceful relocation of bats to more suitable places for them.
