Also, too-frequent disruption of resting bats can drive them permanently away.) Background However, hauling it from caves and other roosts removes the food source of other creatures living in that ecosystem.
Bat activities also pollinate fruit plants, such as banana, fig, date, and mango.Īnother benefit is their droppings, called guano, which make excellent fertilizer. Fruit bats are the most critical factor in reforestation of rainforests-some types of trees owe their continued existence solely to bats. Old World bats are important for dispersing seeds, either spitting them out as they eat fruit or eliminating them in their feces. Bats are voracious feeders, eating up to half their body weight each night to meet their energy needs. Some bats seek insects on the ground or trees. Just one can devour hundreds of insects an hour-up to eight thousand in a night-often just scooping them into their mouths as they fly.
Some are important predators of crop pests, such as cucumber beetles, while others include nuisance insects, like mosquitoes and gnats, in their diet. Worldwide about 70 percent of bats eat insects. You can rest easy! Bats are beneficial, nonaggressive, unfortunate victims of myth. Besides, of the forty-seven species of bats known to inhabit North America, none are vampire bats. Bats represent a quarter of the mammals on earth, with about 1,200 species, so the percentage of vampire bats is quite low. In actuality, only three species of bats drink blood, and none of them favor human blood.
Let’s first dispense with the creepy notion that bats are blood-thirsty predators.
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