Bats and Sound

An Amazing Mammal

By the smart 3rd graders

Room 403

Echolocation

Sound is very important to the bat because it is the sound or echoes that helps the bat find its way in the dark. The sound or echoes also help to find the prey the bats eat.

Using echolocation, bats send out sound waves . If the high pitched waves hit an object , the sound wave comes back to the bat as an echo. The bat then knows what is in front of him like radar. This is also called sonar sound waves.

Bat Capes

Bats are mammals. They are warm-blooded. Bats have furry bodies and hairless wings. It is the only mammal that flies.

The bats’ wings are webbed hands. They have elastic skin from their fingers to their feet.

Most bats are brown, but they can be other colors too.

Batty Eating Habits

Bats have huge appetites. Their favorite foods include beetles, moths, flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, crickets, and sometimes scorpions. Some tropical bats like fruit. Other bats eat fish, frogs, mice, or small birds.

They live where there are lots of insects to eat!

Bat Habitats Bats are found on every continent except Antarctica. Bats are found in swamps, deserts, grasslands, and even in colder regions.

Bat Homes

Some common bat “homes” are caves, tall trees, bushes, barns, and fence-posts.

Bats live in colonies. They like to have lots of friends to “hang” out together.

Bats like habitats where there is lots of food and good places to roost. During the day bats sleep in caves, crevices, tree cavities, and human made structures. Almost all bats rest and sleep, or roost, hanging upside down by their hind feet.

Bats are nocturnal. They sleep during theday and hunt at night.

Other Interesting Facts About Bats

Baby bats are called pups. The mother bat has one baby pup per litter. Baby bats grow quickly. Pups fly when they are 4 months old.

Bats clean themselves like cats.

They clean themselves everyday.

The smallest bat is the bumblebee bat. It is the smallest mammal in the world. It weighs less than a penny. The largest bat is the flying fox.

A bat may eat 500 insects an hour.

Bats stay away from humans. If a bat goes near a human, it may be sick.

Bats help us because they eat insects and they also help to pollunate plants.

Things to Remember About our Friend the

Bat

There are many myths about bats. Bats are not blind, they are not rodents, and they will not get tangled in your hair.

The truth is that bats are among the most gentle, beneficial, and necessary animals on earth.

Learn more about the bat and share the good things that you learn!

How many more interesting facts can you find about bats?

Use the resources below from our school library to help you:

Bats, Zoobooks

Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats, by Earle, Ann

Bats, Scalena, Sharen

Encarta Encyclopedia CD