My turn to share with you some great #batfacts. Here is a thread with information about diverse information about the ecology, the evolution and the conservation of bats. A thread 1/n https://twitter.com/Bats_Chiroptera/status/1247860961614221312">https://twitter.com/Bats_Chir...
More than 1400 of bat species have been described to date. You can find information about the taxonomy of each species at the following website https://batnames.org/home.html ">https://batnames.org/home.html... 2/n
Depending on the species, bats can be found in very diverse roosts including attics, underground sites, tree holes, termite nests, pitcher plants and many others. 3/n
Bats show an incredible diversity of social systems including maternity colonies and groups of males in temperate regions, groups of males or females in subtropical regions, and mixed groups in tropical regions. 4/n https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/58/8/737/381072">https://academic.oup.com/bioscienc...
Depending on the species, bats also show an incredible diversity of diets including insects, nectar, fruits, fish, frogs or even blood (the famous vampires!). 5/n
Bats can learn about food indirectly, for example via chemical cues carried by the breath and body of frugivorous bats, or via acoustic cues from feeding buzzes from insectivorous bats. Bats can also transfer information directly, via signals https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12146">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/1... 6/n
Bat guano (= feces) contains major nutrients and can be safely used as a fertilizer, both indoors and outdoors, and will benefit vegetables, herbs, flowers, all ornamentals, and fruit and nut trees 9/n http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/bats-magazine/bat_article/735">https://www.batcon.org/resources...
Bats are known to live very long with regard to their body mass. The longest-lived bat species known to date is Myotis brandtii. It is an insect-eating species, weighing 4-8g when adult and with a lifespan exceeding 40 years. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3212">https://www.nature.com/articles/... 10/n
Bats are also providing a lot of ecosystem services including insect removal, seed dispersal and pollination. http://www.batcon.org/why-bats/bats-are/bats-are-important">https://www.batcon.org/why-bats/... 11/n
With less than 2 grams, the bumblebee bat is one of the smallest mammal in the world. This is the only living species in the family Craseonycteridae, it roosts in limestone caves in Thailand and Myanmar http://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/bumblebee-bat/">https://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/b... 15/n
A special glycoprotein - draculin - is an anti-coagulant found in the saliva of vampire bats. Draculin is currently being explored in medicine and may be useful as a treatment for strokes and heart attacks. 16/n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draculin ">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drac...
Bats have many predators including spiders! The following publication reviews more than 50 incidences of bats being captured by spiders in Neotropics, Asia and Australia-Papua New Guinea by web-building spiders as well as hunting spiders https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0058120">https://journals.plos.org/plosone/a... 26/n
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