Going Batty

Bats, more than almost any other animal, have long been associated with all that is evil. Wing of Bat, along with eye of newt, form two of the main ingredients of any proper witches brew. To top it all off, there are the vampires transmuting into a bat and flying across the disc of the moon. However, once you move beyond imagination and into reality, bats are not only fascinating but incredibly unique in the world of mammals.

They are the only mammal that can fly (not counting the limited soaring of animals like the flying squirrel). They are active during the darkest of nights and sleep upside down during the daytime. These two facts alone must surely place them in a category of their own: we'll call them Chiroptera which translates to "hand wing". This name is quite appropriate as they fly utilizing a thin membrane stretched between long fingers. In the vast majority of cases the membrane also stretches between the hind legs as well. As primitive a flying mechanism as this may sound, bats are incredibly agile in the air--easily more so than many birds.

The wings have uses other than flying. They can be used to collect insects before they are eaten as well as to catch the new born bats at birth. Some also use them as raincoats and blankets as the vast majority of their time is spent just hanging around subject to the elements.

One of the other great mysteries of bats lies in their method of locating insects in the dark. They use a highly developed form of sonar and echo-location. They produce ultrasonic sound waves in rapid pulses which then bounce off nearby objects. By interpreting the return waves, or echo, the bat can determine distance, speed, direction, texture and size of the object. They can even recognize their own signals while surrounded by hundreds of other bats sending out similar signals. Oh by the way, the expression "blind as a bat" has no factual basis. They use their eyesight as a back up to their sonar at close range.

Although there are nine species of bats within Alberta, only three are commonly seen. They are all insect eaters (sorry, no vampire bats here) and generally eat flying insects almost exclusively. They have a very high metabolic rate and so must eat lots of insects to stoke their furnaces. A typical colony of little brown bats (that's the name of a particular type of bat) can eat up to 50 kg of insects in a single summer. One individual has been found to eat 900 insects in one hour. Almost like a James Bond movie, the bats fly around sending out sonar signals and detecting prey. Some insects, like moths can not only detect this sonar and begin tactical evasive manoevres, but some species can even send out their own type of sonar to try to jam the bats or warn the bats that they taste terrible.

Little is known of the bats winter activities. True hibernators they generally while away the winter in a deep sleep. However, whether they do this in Alberta or move further south, little is known.