Bats have amazing super powers, and they have an important job to do in the environment. Like our
favorite caped crusader, bats help keep us safe from bad guys like crop destroying insects and pesky
mosquitoes. A single bat can gobble up more than half its body weight each night in these flying insects!
Bats are the only mammals that truly fly. The zigs and zags of a flying bat may look random to us, but
the bat knows exactly where to go using its twin powers of super hearing and echolocation. The bat
sends out a very loud, very high-pitched sound, and then listens carefully for the sound to bounce off
something – like a flying insect.
Bats’ bodies have adaptations such as big ears and large noses with strange looking bumps that help
gather sound waves. Instead of feathers, bats have stretchy skin covering their incredibly long fingers to
form wings. Bats hang from up high and sleep upside down, making it easy to take off and fly away at
meal time. They hunt at night when lots of bugs are active, and the birds have gone to sleep.
Bats are awesome, but they still need our help. If you put up a bat box, you can give them a safe place
to rest during the day. Then you can watch them patrol your backyard on summer nights to help keep
your neighborhood safe from pesky bugs!
