UNIQUE ANIMALS #1- BATS

This article is majorly about an animal that is seen in most culture as a representative of the devil, but before I go into that I will be using this opportunity to give a brief introduction of myself, I hope we can be friends. My name is Ify Joseph, but my friends call me Marvy. I am a fourth year student of Animal science MOUAU, Nigeria, who has a soft heart for animals. When my friend @pangoli told me about steemit, he described it as school with so many teachers and these few days I have been on steemit I can't help but believe it. I visited #steemstem and I saw a lot of professional articles authored by wonderful people after going through them I began to appreciate nature the more and also realize the need to educate the world not only on science but also in beauty of animals. Its really nice being here. I want to make impact here as you guys have made in my life. I hope I fulfill this great expectation.

THE BAT.

Bats are arguably the most misinterpreted in the animal world. In most native cultures bats are believed to be a representative of the devil thus they are used to symbolize evil, but that's not true. A proper study on this animal would prove how fallacious that belief is. To be frank, in all my researches on animals I have not yet seen any animal that possess as much abilities as the bats. I think man have been too harsh on this animal that makes sharp maneuvers faster than any bird when flying even though it's vision is not so good.

Have you ever tried balancing yourself on your head with your feet up in the air. When you finally stand up on your feet you can remember how dizzy you feel right? Now imagine spending most part of your life hanging upside down. I guess you got the picture.

Bats spend a better part of their life hanging upside down, and they do so to save a lot of energy. They don't feel dizzy from hanging upside down due to the nature of their circulatory system. The human circulatory system pumps blood towards the brain while that of bats pumps blood away from the brain. They are the only mammal that has the ability to fly for a long time. The most outstanding ability is that they can tell where the North is and which way is south by interpreting earth's magnetic field. Am sure you agree with me now that this animal is worth studying. Below is a video on bats.

THE DESCRIPTION OF BATS

There more than 950 different species of bat on earth. These species are divided into the microbat and the megabat according to their size. The shapes of their teeth and their head vary from one specie to the other. Basically, these species of bat don't only differ on their teeth and shape of head, they differ also on what they feed on. It's quite predictable that some species are named based on what they feed on. Example the fruit eating bat, the Vampire bat, the frugivorous bat e.t.c. Some species are named based on their looks, e.g the flying fox bat. We also have other species under the megabat and the microbats.

Bats are capable of flying for a long time flying at a speed of about 120km/hr. Bat have five digits which are spread around it's wings. Their wings are so carefully designed to be flexible such that it allows them to perform sharp manoeuvres even faster than birds. Their wings are wonderful. Even though their wings are not strong and can easy tear, when they fly, their wings obey every law of aerodynamics while being subjected to bending and shear stresses.

Bats don't stand on trees as birds do, rather they hang with their feet in an upside down position. This posture is called roosting. We humans apply force on our hands so as to close them, for bats it's the opposite. The don't require muscular power to hold on to the tree, rather they require muscular power to loose their feet from the tree. The feet of bats are in such away that they don't allow any other thing about from hanging on trees.

Most people say bats are blind, that is not true. Bats are not blind, rather their eyes are poorly developed. The eye of a bat can only detect low level light. This is known as Mesopic vision. Due to their poor sight, they depend on their other senses in inspecting their environment.

When searching for prey, since they have poor vision, bats emits ultra sounds into the surrounding and with the result they got from the echo produced they can determine the position of their prey. Thus they really don't need light of the sun to search out their prey since they can determine their prey in the dark. This sounds they emit ranges from 70 to 136 decibles and when they make this call they close up their ear a bit to prevent them from being deafened by their call. Bats do have extremely sharp ears, they can even hear an insect move it's wings from a long distance.

With the result gotten from the echo received they can construct the accurate picture of their prey and the environment the prey is. They can do so while flying. Just as dogs move their head to one side when they want to hear something clearly, the bats do the same but not for the same reason. They do that so as to tune their ear to the right frequency which will enable them locate their prey. This action is called echolocation. Large bats make use of low frequency when they call. Small bats make use of high frequency. The video below show how bats tune their ear to the right frequency.

There is always a black sheep in the family, though bats do have poor vision the megabat species have quite good sight that can even adapt to any time, both day and night vision. It is thought that they have a better eye sight than man. Thus the quote "as blind as a bat" is not accurate.

WHERE BATS CAN BE FOUND.

Bats are found all around the world excluding some islands close to the ocean. As there are different species of bat so does there choice of habitat is different. Thus their choice of habitat is dependent on two factors: the specie and the time of the year.

WHAT THEY FEED ON

Bats feed on pollen, lizards, frogs, bird, insects e.t.c. Due to their rapid burn of energy when they fly, bats have to eat more than 140% of their body weight so as to make up for the lost energy. Bats drink from the stream by dipping their tongue on the stream as they fly across it, they also get their water from what they feed on.

Apart from the frugivorus bat and the insectivorous bat, all other species of bat can't produce vitamin C.

The vampire bat feed on the blood of an animal when the animal sleeps. What they do is to wait for their prey to sleep then they bite off a small part of the prey's skin, as blood drips out of it they lap it up. Bats have a saliva that possess an anticoagulant that prevents the blood from clotting while they feed on the animal.

HOW BATS BEHAVE SOCIALLY.

Bats are vocal animals that calls out either to either attract mates, inspect their environment for prey or protect their own. When bats calls to attract mates they do so in low frequencies. Even though these calls are in low frequency, it can travel a long distance. Some bats sing just like the birds. Do you know that bats have different voices? Yes it's true, just as my voice differs from yours their voices are different. Even, the males change their tone when they communicate to a female. You are surprised right? I was too when I learnt of it.
When it's time for the males to breed they normally produce a spicy odor which they use to indicate to their female counterpart that they are ready to mate.

The male bats are polygamous, the male bats normally claims roost sites and other resources and use them as bait to attract the females and when they do, they mate with them.

HOW BATS REPRODUCE.

When bats are through with mating, the male bat places a mating plug on the female which prevents the sperm of other males from entering the female bat ( even if she mates with another male) so as to be very sure about it's paternity. Bats are also known to mate in hibernate state.

Some specie of bat store the sperm for several months after copulation before the egg is fertilized. While in some bats, the egg is fertilized but is not implanted into the womb till external conditions are conducive enough for the birth to the offspring. This delay sometimes last for a long time. Through out this period the female bat keeps the egg alive by giving it nutrient inside her body.

THEIR LIFE CYCLE.

Most female bat give birth to a pup at a time. The bats that finds habitat in the Northern hemisphere give birth between the months of May and June while those whose habitat are in Southern Hemisphere give birth between the month of November to December.

As noticed in most animals, the mother bat takes care of the little bat. The mothers wean their baby for a period of 80 days. Normally it is expected that the little bat should be able to fly after 42 days of birth.

Bats live up to thirty years which is not a common phenomenon for a mammal of its size. It is believed that they live long because during hibernation they reduce their metabolic rate which in turn reduces their mortality rate.

PREDATORS.

Hawks, snakes, cats and owls feed on bats. In some parts of Asia, they are eaten by humans. Thus, most bats die in the hands of their predator. Bats serves as host to a lot of viruses and parasite, thus, sometimes they die from diseases.

They served as host to the coronaviruses which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Bat suffer also from a disease called white nose syndrome which had led to the death of so many bats especially in US and in Canada.

ENDANGERMENT

Even though bats are not currently an endangered animals, bats are currently facing a threat to their habitat because of human activities. Due to this, laws and institutions are been established to save their habitat by punishing any one that tries to disturb their habitat.

WHAT THEY SIGNIFY IN RELIGION AND CULTURE.

Bats are always associated with evil. In Africa it is believed that seeing a bat in your house is a sign of death or that someone is bewitching you. But come on, don't tell me you believe that.

IMPORTANCE OF BATS.

Most people don't realize how important the bat is. The bats are the reason why the population of insects have not grown to excess, thus the bats keep them in check. Bats save millions for farmers since they help reduce the farmers need for pesticide.

They also protects the environment from pollution since they reduces the use of pesticide which is known to be one of the major causes of pollution in the environment.

It will be nice to recognize that not only birds and other insects are responsible for pollination even bat also help in pollination.

MY THOUGHTS.

Some cultural and religious belief have beclouded the peoples' mind, preventing them from taking time to sit down and appreciate the wonders in nature. The bats are one of the misquoted and misinterpreted animals in the world. To be frank most of us think the worst of them, probably because of what we heard about them or what our beliefs say about them. It's so unfortunate that they cannot defend themselves. The most unfortunate thing about all these is that, in these animals that we don't appreciate are where the mysteries of nature are hidden in. A verse in the christians bible says that every good thing come from the Lord, except we are trying to say that animals like the bat were made by the devil. Let's keep all beliefs aside and with all diligence pay close attention to this animal that makes up 20% of the mammal world before they become an endangered animal.

by @Marvy96.

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