The bat is a useful vampire. Bat How bats scream

Signs and beliefs associated with bats

Signs and beliefs associated with bats.

I am One of the night, a bat from an ancient family.

An unknown mouse hanging upside down on a tree.

I may be some rare breed of bird

From the realm of ultra, from the city of echoes, a hero?

No, I'm not a vampire, that's in the past...a larva for dinner,

(I'm on a diet), butterfly pate,

Fruit pulp is a supply of vitamins, colds...

Kh..., an eternal draft in these European caves!...Over the years

The understanding has come that I am not the only butterfly alive,

I am sending a request to other worlds - ultrasound...

But the echo is silent, the Great Mouse does not listen.

Where to put the membranes of winged hands???

***

If bats come out of their holes just after sunset and frolic in the sky, this portends clear and warm weather.

An old Scottish belief states that if a bat flies up and falls to the ground again, it means that the witching hour has come, when witches have power over all human beings, deprived of special protection. Of all the inhabitants of Britain, only the Scots saw some kind of connection between bats and people .

Here is another similar belief.

Modern residents of Tendo (Gold Coast) believe that the flocks of bats that leave the island every evening and rush to the mouth of the river are the souls of the dead who reside on the sacred island and every evening must visit the home of the good fetish Tano, who lives in the river of the same name. And the Wotjobaluk tribe in southeastern Australia believe that the life of a bat is connected to the life of a person, and if you kill a bat, then human life will also be shortened.

A similar superstition in Scotland and the north of England was associated with hares. It was believed that witches could turn into hares, and if the hare was wounded or killed, the witch would also be found killed or wounded.

In this way, many witches and sorcerers were caught in Britain. In Russia, “superstitious people carried [bats] ... in dried form in their bosoms, for the sake of health or happiness. Or they brewed it with boiling water and gave such water for healing to the sick, lying in gnetica or in a fever, for children." In Eastern Siberia, after killing a bat, "they hang it on a thread from the ceiling and dry it for a long time; after that they crush it into powder, which is mixed into the horses' feed. It prevents spoilage." Bats were called bats. It is believed that “bats are played to the bucket.

A bat flies into the house - to trouble.

Meetings with a bat are the most terrible signs - there is nothing worse than meeting these mice.

If a bat screams or squeaks while flying, expect failure.

If a person is attacked by a bat, death is already on the way.

To see a bat flapping its wings is to incur a terrible disease.

On the Isle of Man and in areas along the Welsh border, it was said that witches turned into bats and entered houses as such. E. M. Leather tells the story of a man from Whibley Marsh who saw "something like a bat" fly into his room. He hit her with a handkerchief, but when he began to look for the body, he found nothing. Subsequently, he said that from this sign he understood that it was a witch from among those who then lived in the area, because a real bat would certainly have died from such a blow. It is recorded as a Scottish belief that when a bat soars upward in flight and then descends sharply towards the ground, it means that the hour of the witches has come - the time when they have power over people who have no special protection against them.

Despite this connection with witches, the Manx population considers it a very good omen if a bat falls on a person. Many women outside the island will doubt this because of the general belief that if a bat flies or falls on a woman’s head, it will certainly become entangled in her hair and will not get out until it is cut off. But this, it seems, is nothing more than superstition, not based on facts. Countryman magazine (Spring 1960) reports an experiment carried out in 1959 by the Earl of Cranbrook, with the kind help of three young women who allowed him to drop a bat into their hair. Used four bats various types, and in all cases this creature managed to free itself without difficulty, without causing any disorder in its hair.

In Oxfordshire it is considered an omen of death when a bat flies around the house three times. If bats appear in the early evening and fly around, as if playing, this means good weather.

Children, seeing a bat, often try to ward off trouble by singing or saying:

Mouse, mouse, fly away

Fly away from here,

Come again tomorrow

Mouse, mouse fly away,

Bat, fly to the sky,

I'll give you bread

I'll give you a sip of beer

A piece of wedding cake.

>

A bat falling on you is a sign of good luck.

Bringing a bat into the house is a sign of misfortune, a sign of death in the family.

A bat appearing at a wedding is a bad sign.

A bat flies around the house three times - a sign of death.

A bat flying out to “play” in the early evening is a sign of good weather.

A bat hitting a building is a sign of rain.

Seeing a bat during the day is unlucky.

Kill a bat - your life will be shorter.

Keeping a bat bone in your clothes brings good luck.

Keeping the right eye of a bat in your jacket pocket gives you invisibility.

Carrying a powdered bat heart with you will prevent a person from bleeding to death or stop a bullet.

Washing your face with bat blood gives you the ability to see in the dark.

Adding a few drops of bat blood to someone's drink makes the person who drinks it more passionate.

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A bat is an animal that belongs to the class mammals, order Chiroptera, suborder bats (lat. Microchiroptera).

Bats got their name not because they are relatives belonging to the order of rodents, but most likely due to their small size and the sounds they make, similar to a mouse squeak.

Bat - description, structure. What does a bat look like?

Chiropterans are the only mammals on Earth who can fly. Often this entire squad is mistakenly called bats, but in fact this is not so. The order Chiroptera includes the family of fruit bats (lat. Pteropodidae), which does not belong to the suborder of bats (lat. Microchiroptera). Fruit bats, often called flying dogs, flying foxes, and fruit bats, differ from bats in their structure, habits, and abilities.

Bats are small mammals. The smallest representative of the suborder is the pig-nosed bat (lat. Craseonycteris thonglongyai). Its weight is 1.7-2.0 g, its body length varies from 2.9 to 3.3 cm, and its wingspan reaches 16 cm. It is one of the smallest animals in the world. One of the largest bats is the giant false vampire (lat. Vampyrum spectrum), which has a wingspan of up to 70-75 cm, a wing width of 15-16 cm and a mass of 150-200 g.

The structure of the skull varies among different species of bats, as do the structure and number of teeth. Both depend on the diet of the species. For example, in a nectar-feeding tailless long-tongued leaf-nosed bat (lat. Glossophaga soricina) the facial part of the skull is elongated to accommodate its long tongue, which it uses to obtain food. Bats, like other mammals, have a heterodont dental system, including incisors, canines, premolars and molars. Individuals that eat insects with a thick chitinous coating have larger teeth and longer fangs than those that eat insects with a soft shell. Small insectivorous bats can have up to 38 small teeth, while vampires have only 20. Vampires do not require many teeth since they do not need to chew their food, but their fangs, designed to make a bleeding wound on the victim's body, are razor-sharp. Fruit bats have upper and lower cheek teeth that resemble mortars and pestles used to crush fruit.

Many bats have large ears, such as the brown long-eared bat. Plecotus auritus), and bizarre nasal projections, like those of horseshoe bats. These features affect the bat's echolocation abilities.

During evolution, the forelimbs of bats were transformed into wings. The humerus has shortened and the fingers have lengthened; they serve as the frame of the wing. The first finger with a claw is free. With its help, animals move in the shelter and manipulate food. In some species, such as clouded bats (Furipteridae), the first digit is nonfunctional. The second, third and fourth fingers strengthen the part of the wing between the first and fifth and form the interdigital membrane, or wing tip. The fifth finger is extended across the entire width of the wing. The humerus and shorter radius bones support the body membrane, or base of the wing, which functions as a load-bearing surface. The speed of the bat depends on the shape of the wings. They can be highly elongated or slightly elongated. The shape of the wing can be used to judge the bat's lifestyle. Wings with a slight aspect ratio do not allow you to develop high speed, but make it possible to maneuver well among the treetops. The highly extended wings are designed for high-speed flight in open space.

Small and medium-sized bats fly at speeds of 11 to 54 km/h while searching for prey. The fastest flying animal is the Brazilian folded lip (lat. Tadarida brasiliensis) from the genus of bulldog bats, which is capable of speeds of up to 160 km/h.

Taken from: www.steveparish-natureconnect.com.au

The hind limbs of bats, unlike other mammals, are turned to the sides with the knee joints backward. On them, animals hang in shelters with the help of well-developed claws.

Some species are able to walk on all four limbs. For example, an ordinary vampire (lat. Desmodus rotundus) during a hunt, landing on the body of the prey or next to it, it approaches on foot to the place where it delivers the bite.

Bats have tails of varying lengths:

• partially enclosed in the interfemoral membrane, with a free tip located on top of it, as in sacwings (lat. Emballonuridae);
• completely enclosed in the interfemoral membrane, like in the bats (lat. Myotis);
• protruding beyond the interfemoral membrane, as in folded lips (lat. Molossidae);
• long free tail, like that of mousetails (lat.Rhinopoma).

The body and sometimes the limbs of mammals are covered with hair. A bat's fur can be smooth or shaggy, short or not very short, sparse or thick.

The color of bats is dominated by gray, brown, and black tones. Some animals are lighter colored - fawn, whitish, yellowish. Occasionally bright specimens are also found. For example, in the Mexican fish-eating bat (lat. Noctilio leporinus) yellow or orange fur.

Taken from: www.mammalwatching.com

There are white bats with yellow ears and nose - these are Honduran white bats (lat. Ectophylla alba).

Taken from: faculty.washington.edu

In nature, there are bats with a body not covered with hair. There are two known species of bare-skinned bats from South-East Asia and Philippines (lat. Cheiromeles torquatus And Cheiromeles parvidens) they are almost completely hairless, with only sparse hairs remaining.

Bats have unique hearing. It is the leading sensory organ in these animals. For example, false horseshoe bats (lat. Hipposideridae) catch the rustle of insects swarming in the grass or under a layer of leaves. The ears of many bats have a tragus - a narrow cutaneous-cartilaginous outgrowth that rises from the base of the ear. It serves to enhance and better perceive sound.

Taken from: blogs.crikey.com.au

Bats' vision is poorly developed. There is no color vision at all. But still, bats are not blind, and some even see quite well. For example, the Californian leaf-nosed bat (lat. Macrotus californicus) sometimes, with appropriate lighting, searches for prey using the eyes.

Bats have not lost their sense of smell. By the smell of a female Brazilian folded lip (lat. Tadarida brasiliensis) find their young. Some pipistrelle bats distinguish members of their colony from strangers. Large nightlights (lat. Myotis myotis) and New Zealand bats (lat. Mystacina tuberculata) smell prey under a layer of foliage. New World leaf-noses (lat. Phyllostomidae) find the fruits of nightshade plants by smell.

How do bats navigate in the dark?

The main means of orienting bats in space (for example, in dark caves) is echolocation. Animals emit ultrasonic signals that bounce off objects and echo back. The animal makes sounds originating in the throat with its mouth or directs them into the nose, emitting them through the nostrils. In such individuals, the nostrils are surrounded by bizarre projections that form and focus sound.

People only hear how bats squeak, because the ultrasonic range in which these animals transmit echolocation signals is inaccessible to the human ear. Unlike a human, a bat analyzes the signal reflected from an object and determines its location and size. The mouse echo sounder is so accurate that it detects objects with a diameter of 0.1 mm. In addition, winged mammals clearly distinguish between various objects: for example, different types of trees. Bats hunt using echolocation. Using reflected ultrasonic waves, winged hunters not only find their prey in complete darkness, but also determine its size and speed. While searching for prey, the frequency of sounds reaches 10 vibrations per second, increasing to 200-250 just before the attack. In addition, the bat can squeak while inhaling, exhaling, and even while chewing food. Before the discovery of ultrasound, these mammals were thought to have extrasensory perception.

Representatives of the suborder are capable of producing both low-frequency and high-frequency sounds, and simultaneously. The animal screams and listens at a speed incomprehensible to humans. Some bats, hunting nocturnal insects, emit up to 250 calls per second when approaching them. Some potential victims (crickets) have developed the ability to hear the squeak of a bat in advance and respond to it by feinting or falling to the ground.

By the way, echolocation is developed not only in bats, but also in seals, shrews, moths, and also in some birds.

Where do bats live?

Bats are widespread throughout the world, with the exception of Antarctica, the Arctic and some oceanic islands. These animals are most numerous and diverse in the tropics and subtropics.

Bats are nocturnal or crepuscular animals. During daylight hours, they hide in shelters, which can be located in a variety of places underground and above ground. These can be caves, rock crevices, quarries, adits, various buildings built by man. Many species of bats live in trees: in hollows, bark crevices, branches, and foliage. Some mice take refuge in original shelters, for example, under bird nests, in bamboo stems and even in cobwebs. American suckers (lat. Thyroptera) spend the day in young rolled leaves, which unfold after the animals leave their home. Leaf-nosed builders (lat. Uroderma Peters), by biting the leaves of palm trees and other plants along certain lines, they get something like an awning from them.

Some species of bats prefer to live alone or in small groups, for example, the lesser horseshoe bat. Rhinolophus hipposideros), but mostly they keep in colonies. For example, females of the great bat (lat. Myotis myotis) gather in colonies from several tens to several thousand individuals. The record for the number of members is one of the colonies of Brazilian folded lips (lat. Tadarida brasiliensis), numbering up to 20 million individuals.

How do bats winter?

Bats that live in cold and temperate latitudes hibernate during the cold season, which can last up to 8 months. Some species migrate seasonally over distances of up to 1000 km, such as the red hairtail (lat. Lasiurus borealis).

Why do bats sleep upside down?

Chiropterans stand out among mammals not only because they can fly, but also because they know how to rest: during daytime rest or hibernation, bats hang upside down on their hind legs. This position allows the animals to instantly take off straight from their starting position, simply falling down: this way, less energy is wasted, and time is saved in case of danger. Hanging upside down, bats cling to wall ledges, tree branches, etc. with their claws. Being in this position, animals do not get tired, because the tendon mechanism for closing the claws of their hind limbs is designed in such a way that it does not require the expenditure of muscle energy. Some species, when settling down to rest, wrap themselves in their wings. Species such as the great bats gather in dense heaps, and the lesser horseshoe bats always hang on the ceiling or arches of the cave at some distance from each other.

What do bats eat?

Most bats are insectivores. Some catch insects on the fly, others pick up bugs sitting on the foliage. Among tropical species There are those that feed exclusively on fruits, pollen and nectar of plants. But there are also varieties that eat both fruits and insects. For example, the New Zealand bat (lat. Mystacina tuberculata) feeds on various invertebrates: insects, earthworms, centipedes and, but, at the same time, consumes fruits, nectar and pollen. The diet of fish-eating bats (lat. Noctilio) consists of fish and other aquatic inhabitants. Panamanian big leaf-nosed bat (lat. Phyllostomus hasstatus) eats small birds and mammals. There are also species that feed exclusively on the blood of wild and domestic animals, some birds, and sometimes humans. These are vampire bats, among which there are 3 types: hairy-legged (lat. Diphylla ecaudata), white-winged (lat. Diaemus youngi) and ordinary (lat. Desmodus rotundus) vampires. Other types of vampires live in other places around the globe, but they don’t really drink blood.

Types of bats, photos and names

Below is a brief description of several species of bats.

• White leaf-nosed bat(lat. Ectophylla alba)

A tailless species that belongs to the genus of white leaf-nosed insects. These are small animals with a body length of 3.7-4.7 cm and a weight of no more than 7 grams. Female leaf-nosed insects are smaller in size than males. The color of the animal’s body corresponds to its name: the boiling white back turns into a grayish sacrum, the lower abdomen is also gray in color. The animal's nose and ears have a yellow tone, and the eyes are emphasized by a gray frame around them. White leaf-nosed bats live in the South and Central America, namely in countries such as Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama. Animals prefer moist evergreen forests, climbing no higher than seven hundred meters above sea level. Typically, these white bats live solitary lives or live in small groups of no more than 6 individuals. The animals feed at night. The diet of these bats includes fruits and some types of ficus.

• Giant noctule(lat. Nyctalus lasiopterus)

This is the largest species of bat in Russia and European countries. The body length of the animal varies from 8.4 to 10.4 cm, and the weight of the bat is 41 – 76 g. The wingspan of the animal reaches 41-46 cm. The giant noctule has a brownish or fawn-red color on the back and a lighter belly. Darker colors predominate on the head behind the ears. The bat lives in forests, and its range extends from France to the Volga region and the Caucasus. The species is probably also found in the Middle East. Often the animal inhabits tree hollows together with other representatives of the suborder, and less often forms its own colonies. The wintering grounds of this species are unknown; apparently the animals make long-distance seasonal flights. In nature, a bat feeds on fairly large insects (butterflies, beetles), as well as small passerine birds, which it catches in the air at quite a distance. high altitudes. This bat is listed in the Red Book.

• Hog-nosed bat (lat.Craseonycteris thonglongyai)

This is the smallest bat in the world, which due to its modest size is called the bumblebee mouse. The body length of the animal is 2.9-3.3 cm, and the weight does not exceed 2 grams. The mammal's ears are quite large, with a large tragus. The nose looks like a pig's snout. The color of the animal is usually grayish or dark brown with a slight shade of red, the belly of the animal is lighter. Hog-nosed bats are endemic to southwestern Thailand and nearby areas in Myanmar. The animals hunt in groups of up to five individuals at night. They fly over bamboo and teak trees in search of insects that sit on the leaves of the trees, and when they find food, they hover above the prey right in the air due to their small size and the structure of their wings. The number of pig-nosed bats in the world is extremely low. These animals are among the ten rarest species on Earth and are listed in the International Red Book.

Taken from: www.thewildlifediaries.com

• Two-color leather (two-color bat) (lat.Vespertilio murinus)

It has a body length of up to 6.4 cm and a wingspan of 27 to 33 cm. The bat weighs from 12 to 23 grams. The animal got its name because of the color of its fur, which combines two colors. The back is colored in shades from red to dark brown, and the belly is white or gray. The ears, wings and front part of the animal are black or dark brown. These bats live throughout Eurasia - from England and France to the coast Pacific Ocean. Northern border of the range: Norway, Central Russia, Southern Siberia; southern border: southern Italy, Iran, Himalayas, Northeast China. The habitat of the two-color leatherback is mountains, steppes and forests. In countries Western Europe these bats are often found in large cities. Two-colored bats do not mind being in the neighborhood with other species of bats, with which they share common shelters: attics, eaves, tree hollows, rock cracks. Animals hunt for caddisflies, moths and other small insects throughout the night. The species is endangered and protected in many countries.

Taken from the website: www.aku-bochum.de

• Greater harelip (fish-eating bat)(lat.Noctilio leporinus )

It has a body length of 6.5-13.2 cm and weight from 60 to 78 g. The colors of males and females differ: the former have a reddish or bright red body, the latter are painted in dull grayish-brown shades. A light stripe runs from the back of the head to the end of the animal’s back. These bats are found from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, and are found in the Antilles, southern Bahamas and the island of Trinidad. Bats settle near water in caves, rock cracks, and also climb into hollows and tree crowns. Greater harelips feed on large insects and aquatic inhabitants of fresh water bodies: fish and crustaceans. Sometimes they can hunt during the day.

Taken from: reddit.com

Taken from: mammalart.wordpress.com

• Water bat (Dobanton bat)(lat.Myotis daubentonii)

It got its name in honor of the French naturalist Louis Jean-Marie Daubanton. This small animal has a body length of no more than 4.5 - 5.5 cm and weighs from 7 to 15 g. The wingspan is 24 - 27.5 cm. The color of the fur is inconspicuous: dark, brownish. Top part darker than the bottom. The animal's habitat extends from Great Britain and France to Sakhalin, Kamchatka and the Ussuri region. The northern border runs near 60°N, the southern - from southern Italy, along southern Ukraine, the lower Volga, through northern Kazakhstan, Altai, northern Mongolia, to the Primorsky Territory. The life of a bat is associated with bodies of water, although animals are also found far from them. During the day they can climb into a hollow or attic, and at nightfall they begin to hunt. These bats fly slowly, often fluttering over the surface of water bodies, and catch small insects, mainly mosquitoes. If there is no body of water nearby, then water bats hunt among the trees. By destroying blood-sucking insects, water bats help fight malaria and tularemia.

• Brown long-eared bat ( aka common long-eared bat)(lat. Plecotus auritus)

It has a body length of 4-5 cm and a weight of 6-12 g. The most characteristic thing in the appearance of the long-eared bat is its huge ears. The body is covered with uneven, dull fur. The long-eared bat's habitats cover almost all of Eurasia, including Portugal in the western part of its range and up to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the eastern part. The brown long-eared bat is also found in northern Africa, Iran and central China. The lifestyle of bats is sedentary. These winged animals overwinter not far from their places of residence in the summer, inhabiting caves, various cellars, well log houses and hollows of powerful trees, sometimes found in the attics of houses that have been insulated for the winter. A bat with large ears flies out to hunt in complete darkness and hunts until the sun rises.

• Dwarf pipistrelle ( aka small or small-headed bat) (lat. Pipistrelluspipistrellus)

Enough numerous species, belonging to the genus inexperienced, the family of smooth-nosed bats. This is the smallest species of bats in Europe. The body of the dwarf pipistrelle resembles that of a mouse, its length is 38-45 mm, and the tail length is 28-33 mm. The weight of the dwarf pipistrelle is usually 3-6 g. The wingspan of this small bat reaches 19-22 cm. The body is covered with short, even hair, which is colored brown in the European form of the animal, and pale grayish-fawn in the Asian form. The lower part of the body is lighter in color. The dwarf pipistrelle is widespread in Eurasia: from west to east from Spain to Western China, and from north to south from southern Norway to Asia Minor and Iran. In addition to Eurasia, this species of bat is found in North Africa. Settles in places associated with human habitation, does not occur in the depths of forests and steppes, avoids caves, and sometimes settles in tree hollows. In winter, bats make seasonal migrations. Adult males are extremely rare in the spring and summer, as they stay solitary or gather in small groups separately from females and young individuals. Bats hunt after sunset. They fly low, in the lower part of tree crowns. This tiny mouse's diet consists of small insects. The dwarf pipistrelle is one of the most useful bats in the Eurasian fauna.

• Great horseshoe bat(lat. Rhinolophus ferrumequinum)

The dimensions of the animal are 5.2-7.1 cm, the wingspan reaches 35-40 cm, and the weight of the bat is 13-34 g. The color of the back varies depending on the habitat from dark chocolate to pale smoky fawn. The animal's abdomen is whitish with gray tint, lighter color of the back. Young animals have a uniform grayish color. The species is widespread in northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria); in Eurasia, the habitat of the horseshoe bat extends from Great Britain and Portugal through mountainous areas Central Europe, covers the Balkans, countries of Asia Minor and Western Asia, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, Tibet, and ends in southern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. In Russia, this bat is found in Crimea and the North Caucasus, covering a range from Krasnodar region to Dagestan. The usual places of settlement of the horseshoe bat are mountain crevices, grottoes, basements and ruins, as well as caves. In Central Asia, these animals live under the domes of tombs and mosques. Bats live relatively sedentary lives, making local seasonal migrations. They winter in damp caves and dungeons. They hunt low above the ground for moths and small beetles. The great horseshoe bat is listed in the Red Book of Russia.

• Common Vampire ( aka big bloodsucker, or Desmod) (lat.Desmodus rotundus )

The most numerous and known species real vampires. It is largely thanks to this genus that bats have their bad reputation. An ordinary vampire does indeed feed on blood, including drinking human blood. This animal is small in size: the length of the bat is 8 cm, weight is 50 g, wingspan is 20 cm. Bloodsucking vampires live in large colonies. During the day they sleep in the hollows of old trees and caves. An ordinary vampire flies out to hunt late at night, when his future victims are immersed in deep sleep. It attacks large ungulates such as,. It can also bite a person sleeping in an open area or in a house with open and unprotected windows. Using hearing and smell, vampire bats find a sleeping victim, sit on it or next to it, crawl to the place where the vessels come close to the surface of the skin, bite through it and lick the blood flowing from the wound. A special secret contained in the saliva with which the vampire wets the victim’s skin makes the bite painless and affects blood clotting. As a result, the victim may die from blood loss, since the blood for a long time flows out without collapsing. But this is not the only danger of an ordinary vampire. Its bite can transmit the virus of rabies, plague and other diseases. Vampires themselves suffer from rabies. The spread of disease within a species occurs, among other things, due to the tendency of vampires to share regurgitated blood with hungry fellow tribesmen, a habit that is extremely rare among animals. Vampire bats live only in the tropics and subtropics of Central and South America. There are other types of vampires in other places around the world, but they do not feed on blood. Thanks to these three species of bats, negative attitude to bats, which are not only harmless, but also useful animals.

Contrary to their name, their bat namesakes are not even related to ordinary mice. While ordinary mice belong to the order of rodents, bat mice are representatives of the order Chiroptera, which has little overlap with rodents. But where did the name "bat" come from? The fact is that bats were so named due to their small size and squeak, very similar to the squeak of mouse rodents.

Bat - description, structure. What does a bat look like?

The order Chiroptera, to which bats actually belong, is especially notable for the fact that they are, in fact, the only mammals capable of flight. Now, it’s true that the order of bats includes not only flying mice, but also other equally flying brothers: flying dogs, flying mice, as well as fruit flying mice, which differ from their brothers - ordinary bats, both in their habits and in their body structure.

As we already mentioned, bats small size. The weight of the smallest representative of this species, the pig-nosed bat, does not exceed 2 grams, and the body length reaches a maximum of 3.3 cm. In fact, this is one of the smallest representatives of the animal kingdom.

The largest representative of the bat family, the giant false vampire, has a mass of 150-200 g and a wingspan of up to 75 cm.

Different species of bats have different skull structures, the number of teeth also varies and largely depends on the diet of a particular species. For example, the tailless long-tongued leaf-nosed insect, which feeds on nectar, has an elongated facial part. Nature wisely made it so that he had somewhere to accommodate his long tongue, which in turn is necessary for getting food.

But predator bats that feed on insects already have a so-called heterodont dental system, which includes incisors, canines and molars. Small bats, which eat even smaller insects, have up to 38 small teeth, while large vampire bats have only up to 20. The fact is that vampires do not need many teeth, since they do not chew their food. But they have sharp fangs that make a bleeding wound on the body of the victim.

Traditionally, bats, almost all species, have large ears, which are responsible, among other things, for their amazing echolocation abilities.

The forelimbs of bats were transformed into wings over a long period of time. The elongated fingers began to serve as the frame of the wing. But the first finger with the claw remains free. With its help, bats can even eat and perform various other actions, although in some of them, such as smoky bats, it is not functional.

The speed of a bat depends on the shape and structure of its wing. They, in turn, can be very long, or vice versa with a slight extension. Wings with less aspect ratio do not allow development higher speed, but they can be easily maneuvered, which is very useful for bats living in the forest, which often have to fly among the treetops. In general, the flight speed of a bat ranges from 11 to 54 km per hour. But the Brazilian folded lip, from the genus of bulldog bats, is the absolute record holder for flight speed - it is capable of reaching speeds of up to 160 km per hour!

The hind limbs of bats have a characteristic difference - they are turned to the sides with the knee joints back. With the help of well-developed hind legs, bats hang upside down, and in this seemingly (to us) uncomfortable position they sleep.

Bats, like any decent mammals, have a tail, which also varies in length depending on the species. They also have bodies (and sometimes limbs) covered with fur. The coat can be smooth, shaggy, short or thick, again depending on the species. The color also varies, usually whitish and yellowish shades predominate.

Honduran white bat with a very unusual coloring - White wool contrasts with yellow ears and nose.

However, there are also representatives of bats with a body completely without hair - these are two naked-skinned bats from Southeast Asia.

The vision of bats leaves much to be desired; the eyes are poorly developed. In addition, they do not distinguish colors at all. But poor eyesight This is more than compensated by excellent hearing, which, in fact, is the main sense organ in these animals. For example, some of the bats can detect the rustling of insects swarming in the grass.

Their charm is also well developed. For example, females of the Brazilian folded lip are able to find their cubs by smell. Some bats sense their prey by smell, as well as by hearing, and can also distinguish between “their” and “foreign” bats.

How do bats navigate in the dark?

It's simple, bats “see with their ears.” After all, they have such an amazing property as echolocation. How does it work? And so, animals emit ultra sound waves, which are reflected from objects and return back through the echo. Incoming return signals are carefully recorded by bats, thanks to this they are perfectly oriented in space and even hunt. Moreover, through reflected sound waves they can not only see their potential prey, but even determine its speed and size.

To emit ultrasonic signals, nature has equipped bats with a specially designed mouth and nose. First, the sound originates in the throat, then is produced by the mouth and goes to the nose, radiating through the nostrils. The nostrils themselves have various bizarre projections that serve to shape and focus sound.

People can only hear how bats squeak, because the ultrasonic waves emitted by them are not perceived by the human ear. Interesting fact: earlier, when humanity did not know about the existence of ultrasound, the amazing orientation of bats in pitch darkness was explained by the presence of extrasensory abilities.

Where do bats live?

They live practically all over the world, of course, with the exception of the cold Arctic regions. But most of them live in the tropics and subtropics.

Bats are nocturnal or twilight image life. During the day, they usually hide in various shelters, both underground and above ground. They especially love caves, quarries, mines, and can hide in tree hollows or under branches. Some bats even take shelter under bird nests during the day.

Bats, as a rule, live in small colonies - up to several dozen individuals. But there are colonies of bats that are much more populous; the colony of Brazilian folded lips is considered a record, boasting the presence of 20 million individuals. On the other hand, there are bats that prefer to lead a solitary lifestyle.

Where do bats hibernate?

Some bats living in our temperate latitudes similarly fall into hibernation with the onset of winter cold. Some, like birds, migrate to warmer places.

Why do bats sleep upside down?

The seemingly strange habit of bats sleeping upside down, hanging on their hind legs, also has very practical reasons. The fact is that this position allows them to instantly take flight. To do this, you just need to unclench your paws. Thus, less energy is wasted and time is saved, which can be very important in case of danger. The hind legs of bats are designed in such a way that hanging on them does not require the expenditure of muscle energy.

What do bats eat?

Most bats feed on insects, but there are also absolute vegetarians among them, preferring pollen and plant nectar, as well as various fruits. There are also omnivorous bats that love plant foods, and small insects, and some large species They even hunt fish and small birds. Bats are excellent hunters, largely due to their wonderful echolocation property, which we described above. Vampire bats stand apart in terms of nutrition, feeding exclusively on the blood of wild and domestic animals (however, they can also feast on human blood), hence the name.

Types of bats, photos and names

Here is a description of the most interesting bats in our opinion.

It is especially interesting for its appearance, yellow ears and nose against a background of white fur. It also differs from other bats in the absence of a tail. The white leaf-nosed plant is very small in size, its body length does not exceed 4.7 cm, and its weight is 7 grams. Leaf-noses live in South and Central America, preferring as a home rain forests. They are herbivores and feed exclusively on fruits. They live in small colonies of up to ten individuals.

The giant noctule is the largest bat found in Europe. The body length of the noctule reaches 10 cm, and the weight is 76 grams. Has brown fur. The noctule usually lives in forests, inhabiting tree hollows. You can also find it on the territory of our Ukraine. It feeds on large insects, beetles,... Also listed in .

It is notable for the fact that it is the smallest representative of the bat family. Its length is only 2.9-3.3 cm, and everything is no more than 2 grams. However, it has quite large ears. The nose is very similar to the snout of a pig, hence the name of this species. The pig-nosed bat's color is often gray or dark brown. They live in Southeast Asia, especially many of them live in Thailand and its neighboring countries. Interesting feature The habit of pig-nosed mice is their collective hunting. They hunt in groups of up to five individuals at night. Due to their small numbers, pig-nosed bats are currently listed in the Red Book.

This species got its name due to the color of its fur, which has two colors - its back is red or dark brown, and its belly is white or gray. The two-colored kazan lives across a wide range: from England and France to the Pacific Ocean. These bats are found not only in natural conditions, but also in human cities, they may well live in the attics and eaves of houses. Night for them is the time to hunt for various small animals - flies, moths. Also endangered.

She is also Daubanton's bat, named after the French naturalist Louis Jean Marie Daubanton. It is small in size, its length is no more than 5.5 cm, and its weight is up to 15 grams. The fur color is usually dark or brown. The habitat is the same as that of the kazhan, almost throughout the entire territory of Eurasia. The life of the water bat is closely connected with bodies of water (hence the first name), it is near them that they like to hunt, especially mosquitoes, which are also found in abundance near ponds and lakes.

The Ushan is so named due to its amazing, by no means small, ears. The long-eared bat also lives in Eurasia, but is also found in North Africa. They like to live in mountain caves, where they lead sedentary image life.

He is also the small-headed bat - the smallest representative of bats in Europe, his body length is no more than 45 mm, and his weight is up to 6 grams. His body really is very similar to that of an ordinary mouse, only with wings. This species also loves to settle in places close to humans.

This species is mountainous, as it loves to settle in mountain caves, canyons, and crevices. It lives over a wide geographical range - Eurasia and North Africa, wherever there is mountainous terrain you can find a large horseshoe bat. They hunt moths and beetles.

It is thanks to this species that bats, which are generally very useful in the ecosystem (at least by killing mosquitoes), have their bad reputation. But an ordinary vampire, in fact, like the famous Count Dracula, feeds on blood, including possibly human blood. But as a rule, various domestic animals become their victims and food supply: pigs. Vampires, as expected, go about their dark business at night, when their victims are in deep sleep. They sit on them unnoticed, biting through the skin of the victim, from which they then drink blood. However, a vampire’s bite is invisible and painless due to the special secret that they possess. But this is where the danger lies, since the victim may die from blood loss. A vampire bite can also transmit the rabies or plague virus. Fortunately, vampire bats live only in the subtropics of Central and South America; in our latitudes, bats are absolutely harmless.

How do bats reproduce?

Bats usually breed twice a year: in spring and autumn. Also different time The duration of pregnancy in bats depends on the habitat and species. Females give birth to one to three babies at a time.

The development of small bats occurs very quickly; within a week, the cub doubles in size. At first, the babies feed on their mother's milk, and after a month of life they begin to hunt on their own.

How long do bats live?

The lifespan of bats ranges from 4 to 30 years, again depending on the species and habitat.

Enemies of bats

Bats also have their own enemies, who in turn can hunt them. Usually this predator birds: peregrine falcons, hobby hawks, and also owls. A snake, marten and weasel will not mind grabbing a bat.

But the main enemy of bats (as well as many other animals) is, of course, humans. The use of chemicals in crop production has significantly reduced the number of bats; many of the species are already listed in the Red Book, as they are on the verge of extinction.

Bat bite

All bats, with the exception of the common vampire, do not pose any danger to humans, and they can bite only for the purpose of self-defense.

Why are bats dangerous?

Again, with the exception of blood-sucking vampire bats, other representatives of this order are completely harmless.

Benefits of bats

But the benefits of bats are much greater:

• Firstly, they are exterminators of many harmful and unpleasant insects (especially mosquitoes), which are carriers of possible diseases. They also eat butterflies and caterpillars - pests of fruit forests.
• Secondly, herbivorous bats that feed on nectar simultaneously contribute to plant pollination by transporting pollen over long distances.
• Thirdly, the droppings of some bats are very useful as fertilizers.
• And fourthly, bats are very important for science, especially when it comes to the study of ultrasound and echolocation.

How to get rid of bats

But still, if bats have settled near the house, for example, under the roof, despite all their benefits, they can be annoying, especially because of their squeaking. To get rid of bats under your roof, cottage or attic, you need to follow these instructions:

• First you will need to find a place where bats rest during the day. Then, after waiting for them to fly away for the night hunt, simply cover this place with a crowbar or something else.
• You can try to smoke them out.
• You can spray their habitats with special sprays whose odors will repel mice.

• Bats always fly to the left side of cover.
• Substances contained in the saliva of vampires are now used as medicines to prevent the formation of blood clots.
• If in our culture bats are associated with vampires and other evil spirits, then in Chinese culture they are, on the contrary, symbols of harmony and happiness.
• The bat is very voracious, so in an hour it can eat up to 100 mosquitoes, in human terms, this is about the same as eating a hundred pizzas in an hour.

Bats video

And in conclusion interesting video about bats.

Who flies with their arms dangling, sleeps upside down and sees with their ears? Any schoolchild will answer this riddle question: a bat. It is impossible to find another creature with the same amazing characteristics.

Silent, rapid flight, lightning-fast turns and turns in the air, a phenomenal ability to avoid obstacles, a very repulsive muzzle with leathery growths, night image life all this somehow does not fit into the cute image of a harmless little animal.

It’s amazing how persistent ancient antipathies of people are towards bats, which, in principle, have not done anything bad to humans, but on the contrary, have brought and continue to bring benefits.

Almost the first signs of “chiropterophobia” in world literature (“chiroptera” is the Greek name for the order Chiroptera) can be found in Aesop. One of the fables of the great Greek tells about a bloody war between animals and birds. Due to their dual nature, bats - inhabitants of both heaven and earth - took one side or the other depending on how they turned fighting. When peace prevailed in the animal kingdom, former enemies unanimously condemned the two-handed bats (one would like to say: “two-handed” bats) and sentenced them to the darkness of the night, forbidding them to appear in nature in the light of day.

African tribes living in Cameroon still have the idea of ​​​​the evil spirits of the Yu-Yu, hiding in caves and flying out from there to do menial deeds at night. This is what the famous English zoologist Gerald Durrell wrote in his book “The Overloaded Ark”:

“The sounds coming from the darkness seemed ominous and scary. It was very cold in the cave, and we were all shivering... I ordered the hunters to stay in place and headed to the place where the floor of the cave began to sink... Approaching the edge, I illuminated a large depression with a flashlight, from which strange sounds were coming. At the first moment, it seemed to me that the floor of the lower cave had broken loose and began to approach me, accompanied by gusts of wind and a supernatural howl. A terrible thought flashed through my mind that evil spirits yu-yu really exist and I would now become a victim of their rage. But then I realized that this whole black mass was made up of hundreds of little bats. They kept together like a swarm of bees; hundreds of these creatures, like a shaggy moving rug, tightly covered the rocky ceiling of the lower cave.”

Perhaps bats occupy the most ominous place in Mexican folklore. In the mythology of the descendants of the Mayan Indians living in southern Mexico, the demon Hikal plays a special role - the evil genius of cunning and deception. It inhabits people with unstable psyches or bad character and subjugates them to his vile will. Anthropologists have established that the demon Hikal is a direct descendant of the bloodthirsty Mayan god, who demanded human sacrifices and was depicted as a small black creature with winged paws. The analogy with a bat is the most direct.

Why do we dislike bats so much? The simplest explanation lies in the habits and structure of bats. The lifestyle they lead is too alien for us, diurnal flightless mammals. Their transformed limbs with translucent membranes look too unnatural.

"An Outrageous Discovery"

Of course, scientists could not help but pay attention to the strange behavior of bats, and the 18th century Italian naturalist Lazzaro Spallanzani was the first to take them seriously. In 1793, he, already a famous scientist, conducted experiments on animals and unexpectedly discovered that, blinded, they fly as freely as sighted ones. After a series of experiments, the naturalist concluded that in blind bats the organs of vision “are replaced by some other organ or sense, which is not inherent in people and about which we will never be able to know anything.” It happens that great scientists make mistakes. The very next year, Geneva surgeon Louis Jurin revealed the secret of bats. As it turned out, bats become completely helpless if their ears... are tightly plugged.

Spallanzani pretended that he did not believe Zhurin, but secretly repeated his experiments year after year and became convinced: his Geneva colleague was right - bats actually “see” with their ears. Only after Spallanzani’s death in 1799 were publications about his experiments published, but the scientific world was hostile to the news. See with your ears?! Incredible! “Perhaps in this case bats hear with their eyes?” - a certain witty naturalist asked sarcastically in the press.

In 1938, two Americans, Harvard University students Donald Griffin and Robert Galambos, became interested in strange “ear-seers.” Back in 1920, one of the acousticians suggested that bats emit high-frequency sounds and navigate in space by signals reflected from obstacles. By the end of the 30s, a receiver that recorded ultrasound had already been invented. For two years, young scientists conducted experiments, capturing signals emitted by bats, and proved: yes, echoes help bats fly. Moreover, many species of bats are guided in flight only by reflected sounds, without relying on vision at all. Soon a new term was born: echolocation.

Only two decades ago, experts began to understand that echolocation is not as simple as it seemed at first glance. Where previously an exhaustive acoustic scheme had been seen - transmission and reception of ultrasounds - amazing depths opened up, the most interesting things were just beginning. And to this day, there are many more questions that bats “ask” than answers.

Gourmets and vampires

“...The little bat... squeaked angrily and, like all bats, looked very much like a tattered umbrella,” wrote J. Darrell. A very good comparison. Only... there are a lot of these “shabby umbrellas” in the world, and they are very different. They live everywhere, except in Antarctica. They spread across the planet without difficulty, covering enormous distances. In Hawaii, for example, bats are clearly of American origin, and between North America and the Hawaiian Islands there are more than three and a half thousand kilometers.

On many Pacific islands animal world very meager. And bats are everywhere there. They, and even rats, are sometimes all the island representatives of the class of mammals. In New Zealand, bats are the only native mammals. Rats, however, are also present there, but they are believed to have been brought by people. And the “shabby umbrellas” are their own, original ones.

It is estimated that every tenth of the class of mammals on Earth is a representative of the order Chiroptera. There are tens of billions of bats and fruit bats on our planet. Among mammals, they are second in number only to rodents. This colossal army has 2 suborders, 19 families, 174 genera and about a thousand species and subspecies. Sometimes, in just one cave, myriads of bats roost for the night. For example, New Cave in Texas houses up to 15 million (!) Mexican folded lips. When at dusk they fly out in search of food, it may seem to an outside observer as if a large fire has started underground, as if clouds of black smoke are pouring out of the hole.

To be fair, let’s say that not all bats are necessarily nocturnal and not all are excellent “hearers.” Eg, flying foxes inhabitants of the tropics frugivores, and there is absolutely no need for them to hunt for insects “by sound”. These large bats - in one species the wingspan reaches one and a half meters - are completely devoid of the ability to echolocation, but their visual acuity is enviable: flying foxes are ten times sharper than humans.

The taste preferences of bats are extremely diverse. There are species that feed exclusively on nectar and pollen of flowers. Their muzzle is elongated, conical, their tongue is prohibitively long to make it easier to get to the treat. Like most bats, they do a good deed - they pollinate plants. Moreover, the plants “know” about this: their flowers are the most ordinary in appearance - green, brown (chiropterans have no color vision), but the smell is sharp, sour, very attractive to some bats. They do not need any other diet: nectar is rich in sugars, and pollen provides all the vital substances - proteins, fats, vitamins, mineral salts.

Fruit bats also live in friendship with plants. The sticky remains of the eaten dinner - fruit seeds, seeds - stick to the flyers and are transported over long distances. Fruit trees, “designed” for bats, are optimally created by nature: the fruits are discreet, but with a strong odor, there are no sharp thorns or hard leaves on the branches; soft-bodied bats can fly in fearlessly. For other animals, as well as for humans, these fruits are most often not suitable for food: they are hard, sour, even bitter, but bats eat them with pleasure.

Omnivorous bats - for example, large vampires - are true predators. True, they do not suck blood, despite the name. Here there is some confusion among bats: large vampires are not vampires at all, it’s a sin to call them ghouls, but bloodsucking vampires really only feed on blood. In the chiropteran kingdom, large vampires are, if not giants, then certainly bruisers: their wingspan is up to 70 centimeters. These robbers attack frogs, rodents, birds and even have cannibalistic habits - they eat their own relatives.

What are the tastes of the big angler (Noctilio leporinus) is clear from the name. This bat, native to Central and South America, hunts exclusively for small fish. It hovers at night over rivers and bays and carefully locates the surface of the water. As soon as a fin appears or the fish splashes its tail, the flying fisherman immediately dives, catches the prey with the claws of its hind legs and, lifting it into the air, places it in a “bag” formed by the membrane between the legs. Then, in a calmer atmosphere, he starts eating: he eats some of the fish, and puts some in his cheek pouches for future use...

The most repulsive method of feeding is that of bloodsucking vampires. They also live in South and Central America, suck blood from large ungulates and do not want to eat any other food. It is no coincidence that bloodsuckers have given rise to many legends, and they are sometimes credited—completely, however, unfairly—even with murder.

It is known that a vampire bloodsucker is not capable of sucking more than a tablespoon of blood per day, and livestock in South America does not particularly suffer from attacks by bats. The wounds heal quickly, and deaths There is never any blood loss at all. Another thing is that bloodsuckers sometimes spread dangerous diseases, for example, rabies. Several decades ago, a horse pestilence broke out in South America. The cause of the death remained unclear, but many zoologists believed that bloodsucking vampires were the carriers of the pathogens.

Finally, the most common among chiropterans are insectivorous bats. Here are leathernats, and long-eared bats, and leaf-noses, and leaf-beards, and folded lips, and horseshoe bats... you can’t list them all.

The gluttony of bats is comparable, perhaps, with the gluttony of their “sworn brothers” - ordinary mice, from the order of rodents. The brown leatherback, for example, can destroy about a thousand insects in an hour. And the Mexican folded lips in the state of Texas alone absorb a mind-boggling amount of insects per year - weighing a total of 20 thousand tons!

To intercept!

Now it's time to return to echolocation. Without the ingenious equipment that nature has provided bats with, it is unlikely that they would be able to hunt moths, flies and beetles, birds and fish so effectively.

Schematically, the situation looks like this: the animal emits very short ultrasonic pulses in flight, the echo reflected from stationary and moving objects returns to it, the sound picture is analyzed in the bat’s brain, hunting options are sorted out, the optimal solution is selected, then the course changes, an attack on the nearest insect, and... the target is hit! By the way, very often bats catch their prey with their wings and then lick them off the membrane with their tongues. But they grab it with their mouths!

The presented scheme is very complicated. Secondly, ultrasounds in the air quickly attenuate. Therefore, the optimal target detection range is 40 x 60 centimeters, one and a half to two meters this is already the limit. Secondly, in a minute, a bat, it turns out, can catch up to 15 midges while the flight trajectory changes dramatically: the animal dives, makes loops, flips, glides onto the wing, goes into a tailspin, the aerobatic technique is amazing! And the flight speed is, thirdly, 2030 kilometers per hour! What a powerful “computer” a bat must have in order to make complex calculations in the blink of an eye (in the “blink of an ear”!) as a rule, no more than half a second passes from noticing the target to catching the prey three-dimensional space, determine in what direction, what size, at what speed and what speed the target is moving (a related task to determine the structure of the surface of the body from the reflected impulse) and give the appropriate commands to your limbs, the whole body: to intercept!

It may seem that echolocation is fundamentally impossible for bats. Let's imagine: the signal reaches the insect, it perceives the ultrasound, and it still has time to react while the echo returns to the hunter. Did evolution really not take this possibility into account and not give insects a chance for salvation, for an escape maneuver? Gave it to me. There are chances. But minuscule. Some moths, having received an ultrasonic “warning”, fold their wings and fall to the ground like a stone; others begin to abruptly change their flight course and scour the air. And yet bats hunt almost unerringly! They manage to intercept the target in almost any situation.

The fact is that a bat orients itself in flight not by a sound beam or beam, but by a sound field: it evaluates many echo signals reflected from different surfaces. When something similar to prey appears in the field of sound vision, the nature of the signals changes: the flyer emits a series of ultra-short pulses that can instantly “ring” the surrounding space to different levels echolocation. Thus, the duration of a single pulse of the brown bat varies from 0.3 to 2 milliseconds. And in such an extremely short period of time (here the sound only manages to travel 10 x 60 centimeters), the animal manages to modulate the signal within wide boundaries: it changes the sound frequency by a whole octave and freely moves from a narrowly focused beam to a wide frontal beam. Naturally, the returning echo is simply saturated with information. Depending on hunting conditions, a bat can emit from 10 to 200 or more such pulses per second. Tricks don't help insects.

In our technological age, it’s easy to make a comparison for a bat: it can easily bear the analogy with an all-weather interceptor fighter equipped with a radar and an on-board computer. But it’s even more interesting to apply the amazing properties of bats to humans: this is the only way to measure the distance separating them from us.

Let's imagine that we live in a world of pitch darkness. In our mouth we have a light source that hits 30 x 40 meters. To navigate in the darkness, we often blink this lamp, and we also constantly “run” across a wide range of frequencies: from infrared radiation to ultraviolet. We can focus a beam of light into a thin beam, or we can illuminate a vast space in front of us. Moreover, we tend to selectively use the visible spectrum - we see in orange, then in blue, then in yellow light, thus, before our eyes, we have a system of constantly changing filters. Let's take this into account. Some species of bats, for example, the snub-nosed leaf beard, straighten the folds of skin around their mouths in flight, turning them into a bell: why not a megaphone? Developing the fantastic image of a “human spotlight”, let’s make the following analogy: the lamp in our mouth is also equipped with a reflector, and binoculars with coated optics are attached to our eyes.

We may or may not like this image, but the translation from the language of sound into the more familiar language of light quite accurately illustrates auditory vision and characterizes the abilities of our flyers - abilities that have been improving for at least fifty million years (this is the age of the oldest fossil bat, and it is extremely similar to modern chiropterans).

In a sea of ​​sounds

Now the picture of echolocation seems to have become more clear. Bats see beautifully and diversely (we have to use such a strange phrase) using ultrasound. But let's ask ourselves next question: What is their visual acuity? How efficiently does the “on-board computer” mouse brain work?

Experiments have shown that bats are, in principle, capable of detecting and bending even ultra-thin threads in flight - only 50 microns thick. But that's not all. It turned out that the mouse computer has... amazing memory!

We set up an experiment. They pulled the wires in such a way that a complex spatial structure was formed, and a bat was launched into this three-dimensional labyrinth. The animal flew right through it, naturally, without ever touching the wires with its wing. It flew by twice, three times... Then the wires were removed and replaced with thin invisible rays of photoelectric devices. And what? The mouse was flying through the maze again! She exactly repeated all the turns, all the spirals of her previous path, and not once did the photocell record an error, and now the labyrinth existed only in the mouse’s imagination. Of course, you can turn things around in such a way that the experiment precisely refutes the presence of mouse intelligence: there are no delays, the direct path is clear, who needs this aerobatics? But for scientists, the flight of a bat in an imaginary maze is the best proof of its adaptive abilities, its high behavioral skills and excellent memory.

The experimenters also gave the bats a mental intelligence task. A handful of metal or plastic objects of various shapes are thrown in front of a brown leather jacket floating in the air, and among them is a worm. Although in nature such tasks do not occur to the skinman, he nevertheless snatches a worm from the garbage thrown in front of him without difficulty.

Bats are simply swimming in a sea of ​​sounds. The echo replaces their vision, touch, and perhaps, to some extent, smell. And it’s very good for us humans that dialogues between bats and the environment take place in the ultrasonic range. Otherwise... otherwise we would very soon go deaf. After all, bats scream very loudly. Acoustics have determined that the sound produced by the brown bat and measured at its mouth is 20 times louder than the noise of a jackhammer operating at a distance of several meters from the experimenter. Some species of tropical bats speak very quietly, “whispering,” but there are also those that scream three times louder than the brown bat.

As American chiropteran specialist Dr. Alvin Novick stated, “I determined the pulse volume of the Malayan hairless folded lip, an animal the size of a blue jay, to be 145 decibels. This is comparable to the noise level of a jet plane taking off.”

Biologists are closely studying bats - these “dolphins of the night sky,” according to the figurative definition of one naturalist: here we mean not only the properties of sound vision, but also the extraordinary mental capacity bats. Scientists hope that observing the behavior of bats will help answer a very important question: how does the animal's brain process and use the information it receives from its senses? And the answer to this question will ultimately allow us to understand the functioning of the human brain.

Thousands of Mexican bats, which live in Texas, sing songs using complex combinations of syllables as they fly. True, the human ear is not able to evaluate the vocal abilities and skill of bats, since they communicate at ultrasonic frequencies.

Biologist Michael Smotherman of the University of Texas Agriculture and mechanics tried to study ways of organizing syllables in bat songs and linking them communication skills with certain areas of the brain.

“If we can figure out which parts of the bat brain are responsible for communication, then we can better understand how the human brain generates and organizes complex sequences of communication signals,” says the scientist. “And by understanding how the human brain works, we can offer different ways to solve problems for people suffering from speech disorders.”

Smotherman's laboratory studied the behavioral and physiological aspects of information transmission in bats. In the first case, they studied seasonal variations and differences in the transmission of information by males and females, and in the second they tried to localize the areas of the brain that are active during communication.

When communicating, Brazilian folded lips emit sound vibrations with higher frequencies than those that the human ear can detect (human perception range 16 - 20,000 Hz). True, people can hear snippets of bat songs if they sing part of the phrase in a “lower voice.”

Bats communicate at high frequencies due to their ability to echolocate. They create ultrasonic waves in the frequency range from 40 to 100 kHz and orient themselves in space, using reflected waves to determine the direction and distance to surrounding objects. The higher the sound frequency, the finer details bats can discern and the more accurately they build their flight path.

The study involved 75 Brazilian folded lips living in Smotherman's laboratory. The studied specimens were not isolated from the wild, but were collected from various buildings such as churches and schools. According to the scientist, these bats are not at all aggressive and, due to their friendly nature, are excellent specimens for research.

The call of the Brazilian folded lip has been found to consist of 15 to 20 syllables.

Each male sings his own song during courtship. Although the “melodies” of courtship songs sound approximately the same for everyone, the performers compose individual proclamations by combining different syllables. In addition to songs addressed to members of the opposite sex, bats use complex vocal messages to recognize each other and also to indicate social status, determining territorial boundaries, when raising offspring and when countering individuals who have invaded someone else's territory.

“No other mammal other than humans has the ability to communicate using such complex vocal sequences,” says Smotherman.

The songs of bats resemble the songs of birds. Over many years of research, scientists have been able to identify the parts of the brain of birds responsible for singing, but, according to experts, the brain of birds is very different from the brain of mammals, and therefore it is quite difficult to use knowledge about the features of vocal communication in birds to understand the features of human speech.

Mammalian brains are structured in much the same way, and bats have many of the same structures found in human brains. Therefore, conclusions about the characteristics of vocal communication in humans can be made based on the study of vocal messages sent by bats.

“The vocal center, which is responsible for organizing complex sequences of syllables, is somewhat higher in bats, and we have not yet been able to determine exactly where it is located,” says Smotherman. “Currently, we are using a molecular method to determine the areas of the brain that are active during singing.”

In the future, scientists hope to apply their findings to solve problems associated with speech disorders. According to the scientist, the idea that human speech is a unique feature greatly limits research in this area. “Compared to the achievements of other areas of neuroscience, we are lagging behind, because we do not yet fully understand the fundamental issues of the functioning of vocal communication in humans,” Smotherman laments.

Although bats are excellent at navigating in space using ultrasound, this mechanism only works well over short distances. As shown, during long-distance flights, bats use the Earth’s magnetic field thanks to a “built-in magnetic compass.”