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All About Bats!
Life-span:
- The brown bat which is the most common bat can live for over 30 years!
Appearance:
- The brown bat has dark brown fur which is glossy on the back and upper parts with pale greyish fur underneath.
- The adult is usually 6-10 cm long and weighs very little.
- Each bat wing has four fingers and a thumb. At the end of each thumb is a hooked claw used for climbing and crawling.
- It has small ears and sharp teeth.
Behaviour:
- A bat only bites in self-defense.
- A bat sleeps or roosts during the day and hunts at night.
- A bat uses echo location (a high frequency pitch) to hunt insects at night.
- A bat eats every 24-48 hours.
- A bat lives in trees, caves, attic walls and roofs.
- Mother bats and their babies live in colonies with hundreds of other bats. Male bats tend to live alone.
- A bat hibernates or flies south to a warmer climate in the winter.
Diet:
- A bat eats insects, especially mosquitoes. One bat can eat 3,000 insects in a night!
Reproduction:
- A female bat gives birth to one baby per year from late May to early July.
- A baby bat is called a “pup”.
Other:
- A bat can carry a serious disease called rabies.
- Bat poop can make you very sick.
