Order of bats. Bats - general overview Number of modern bat species

Chiroptera are small or medium-sized animals capable of real long flight. Their forelimbs are modified into wings: the forearm, metacarpal (metacarpal) bones and phalanges of all fingers, except for the first, are greatly elongated; a thin elastic flying membrane is stretched between the shoulder, forearm, fingers, sides of the body and hind limbs. The hind limbs are turned out so that the knees are facing dorsally. The auricles are usually large, sometimes huge in relation to the size of the body, in many with a well-developed skin protrusion - a tragus. The tail in most species is long, completely or partially enclosed in the interfemoral membrane; the free edge of this membrane is supported by a pair of cartilaginous or bone spurs extending from the heel. Along the base of the spur in many species stretches a kind of skin lobe - an epiblema.

The intermaxillary bones of the skull are always underdeveloped or even absent. There are all categories of teeth in the dental system. The middle pair of upper incisors is always absent. The lower incisors are very small. The fangs are large. The molars are divided into 3 natural groups: small premolars, large (or large) premolars and back (or proper) molars. The most complete dental formula looks like this:

The number of incisors, and especially small premolars, is of great importance in the generic taxonomy of bats. Deciduous teeth differ sharply from permanent ones not only in size, but also in shape.

The brain of bats is relatively large. There are furrows on the cerebral hemispheres. The auditory subcortical centers of the brain are especially strongly developed, which is associated with an unusually high development of hearing. The organs of vision in frugivorous species (bats and large leaf-bearers) are moderately developed, and in most species the eyes are small, and they probably see poorly both day and night.

Bats are distributed almost throughout the Earth to the polar borders of woody vegetation. They are absent only in the Arctic, Antarctic and some oceanic islands. Most numerous and diverse in tropical and subtropical regions. Their homeland is in the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere, where their most primitive representatives are still preserved, distinguished in a special suborder and family of bats (Pteropidae).

The aircraft and flight is the first feature that distinguishes bats from other animals. The deployed wing of the animal is a soft (elastic) and solid (without cracks) cloth stretched between long fingers (like the spokes of an umbrella), large bones of the limbs and sides of the body. The plane of the wing is not flat, but in the form of a gently sloping dome. When the wing is lowered, the air filling the dome creates a temporary support, is forced out from under the dome under pressure and has an unequal effect on different parts of the wing. The anterior edge of the membrane, fixed on the humerus and radius, second and middle fingers, is firmly fixed, and its posterior edge folds upward under air pressure and, resting against a compacted strip of air displaced from under the dome, informs the animal of forward movement. This was traced in the sequential comparison of frames of the film, on which the animals were filmed during a normal rowing flight. A special form of rowing flight is fluttering flight, in which the animal lingers for a while at one point in the air, like a falcon or kestrel, but at the same time keeps its body almost in a vertical position. Sometimes the animal switches to gliding in the air with an almost stationary position of the wings. Such a flight of bats is called gliding or gliding. Only long soaring in the air and they were not observed.

In the course of the historical development of these animals, the aircraft and flight were improved. In fruit bats and the most ancient and primitive leather wings, wings are wide with almost rounded ends. They have a single shoulder joint: only the rounded surface of the shoulder head rests on the cup-shaped articular surface of the scapula; this allows the wing to make circular motions. The auricles of slow-flying animals are usually large and stick out to the sides. There is no interfemoral membrane, or it is small (in the form of lateral flaps), or it is folded with the tail to the upper side of the body and does not take part in flight. The flight of such animals is slow and unmaneuverable.

Most modern leather aircraft have become more perfect. On the shoulder blade they have a second articular (hyaline) surface (platform), on which a greatly enlarged tubercle of the humerus rests, located next to the head of the shoulder. When the hillock is supported on this platform, the wing is fixed in the raised state without the participation of muscles.

From leather in the structure of the aircraft and flight, long-winged ones reached special perfection. The terminal halves of their wings are greatly elongated (due to the elongation of the middle finger) and pointed at the ends. The auricles are so small that they barely protrude above the level of the fur, without disturbing the streamlining of the body. Due to the long bone spurs and the broad muscle connecting the spur and the lower leg, an inhibitory sac is formed from the extensive interfemoral membrane. The long-winged flight is very light and fast. It is often and correctly compared to the flight of swallows.

The highest perfection of the aircraft and flight reached the bulldogs. Their wings are very narrow, sickle-shaped, pointed. The auricles are large, but thick-skinned, flat, fused together above the forehead, and they are located in the same plane with the roof of a wide and flattened skull. In this position, the ears do not slow down, but cut through the air in a horizontal plane. In addition, the lop-eared head of the folded lip is separated from the body by a distinct cervical interception. On a long neck, the head becomes more mobile and performs the additional function of an elevator. When the head is raised, the animal directs the flight path upward, and when the head is tilted, it goes down. The interfemoral membrane in bulldogs is small and narrow. Spurs are long, thick, strong. The muscle that tightens the spur is wide. The bending of the interfemoral membrane and the formation of an inhibitory sac from it are carried out not only by pulling up the spurs, but also by bending the long muscular tail, which protrudes almost half the length of the edge of the membrane.

In this case, the bag turns out to be strong, but small, located under the lowest surface of the interfemoral membrane, behind the body. When the animal moves quickly, the air rushing into the narrow bag causes a sufficient braking effect. With a larger volume of the bag, the animal could probably roll over in the air.

Thus, with the improvement of flight, in addition to the wings with all their parts, the composition of the aircraft includes ears, head, neck, interfemoral membrane, tail.

Orientation in space is the second important feature of bats. Back in 1793, the Italian scientist L. Spallanzani, after many carefully conducted experiments, established that leather owls could fly freely in a dark room, where owls were completely helpless. Animals with closed eyes flew as well as sighted ones.

The Swiss biologist S. Zhyurin in 1794 confirmed Spallanzani's experiments and discovered a new important detail: if the ears of the animal were tightly clogged with wax, then it became helpless in flight and ran into any obstacles. Zhyurin suggested that the hearing organs of bats took over the function of vision. In the same year, Spallanzani repeated the experiments of his colleague and became convinced of the solidity of his assumption. The discoveries of these scientists then seemed absurd, did not find supporters, were rejected, ridiculed and soon forgotten.

The rejection and oblivion of the auditory theory of Zhurin and Spallanzani was facilitated by the new tactile theory of J. Cuvier (1795, 1800), according to which animals navigate in the dark with the help of touch, or, as it was later clarified, with the help of the sixth sense - touch at a distance. This (tactile) theory has been followed by biologists around the world for more than 110 years.

In 1912 X. Maxim (inventor of the heavy machine gun) and in 1920 X. Hartridge (English neurophysiologist) suggested that the “seeing with ears” paradox could be explained by the mechanism of echolocation. Their hypothesis also did not attract attention at first, and the tactile theory continued to be the only correct one.

Only in 1938, D. Griffin, in the laboratory of Harvard University (USA), discovered that brown bats and brown leatherettes, brought to an apparatus invented by G. Pierce for capturing and recording sounds of a wide range, emitted many sounds above the human hearing threshold, in the range of 30 000 - 70,000 Hz (oscillations per second). It was also found that the animals emit these sounds in the form of discrete impulses, lasting from 0.01 to 0.02 seconds, and the frequency of the impulses varied in different situations.

Since the beginning of the 40s of our century, the experimentally verified theory of ultrasonic echolocation, with the help of which flying animals orient themselves in space, has firmly entered science. But in the stream of articles on echolocation, the tactile theory, which biologists around the world adhered to for more than a century and a half, was not mentioned. It became unclear: do bats use touch at a distance, at least as a means, additional to echolocation?

To elucidate the role of various organs in the orientation of bats, AP Kuzyakin (1948) carried out a series of experiments. Even before them, a very important detail in the behavior of the animals was noted: out of two red evening bats and four forest bats released into the room during the day, half repeatedly and with great force (like birds just caught and released into the room) hit the glass of uncurtained windows. In orientation, the animals most of all “relied” on vision, the importance of which was not noted in most articles on echolocation.

To clarify the role of the tactile organs, each of the experimental forest bats and red evening bats was put on a head made of black thick paper. The tip of the funnel was cut off so that the animal could breathe freely through the hole. The back visor of the funnel was glued to the hair at the back of the head. Each animal with a black cap on its head that covered its eyes and ears turned out to be unable to fly. The animal, thrown into the air, opened its wings and, usually gliding, fell to the ground, and if it tried to fly, it hit the tree trunk or the wall of the building.

If, in addition to cutting off the end of the funnel, holes were also cut out against the ears (only the eyes remained closed), then the thrown animal certainly flew quickly and confidently, without bumping into trunks and small branches of crowns; soon, softly (without a blow), he landed on a trunk or branch, with the claw of the thumb of the wing tore off the rest of the funnel from his head and flew away already free. These experiments proved that in experimental animals the organs of touch did not play any role in orientation, and the organs of echolocation were sufficient for normal accurate flight, although the eyes of the animals were also open.

Not all bats use echolocation. No echolocation mechanism was found in most of the studied fruit bats. They navigate and find their food primarily by sight. Among them, only cave fruit bats emit weak orientational noise signals.

Leaf-nosed and desmodes are distinguished into a special group of "whispering" leathers. These animals emit signals 30-40 times weaker in intensity than the signals of leather, horseshoe, etc. In addition, their signals are filled with a mixture of various ultrasonic frequencies. These are noise signals.

In the small animal Aselia trideus from the horseshoe-labia family and in the fish-eater from the hare-lipped family, short frequency-modulated signals alternate with multi-frequency signals, depending on the situation.

Horseshoe bats have two kinds of signals. With a rough orientation in space, the horseshoe emits single signals up to 95 milliseconds long, and for a more subtle recognition of an object, each long signal is divided into a pack of 2-8 shorter pulses separated by pauses of 4-7 milliseconds. The more pulses in a pack, the shorter each of the pulses and each pause between them. At the same time, the intervals between bursts with continuous radiation remain approximately the same as in the regime of long single pulses, or are somewhat reduced. Both single signals and impulses in bursts are emitted by the horseshoe only during exhalation and only through the nasal openings (nostrils), which are comma-shaped and surrounded by bare leathery plates in the form of a horn (E. Sh. Air apetyants and A. I. Konstantinov, 1970 ).

In leather and bulldogs, the location signals are short (on the order of a few milliseconds). Leather ones emit impulses usually through the oral fissure, less often through the nasal openings. Some alternate emitting: if the mouth is occupied by a prey insect, they emit signals through the nostrils.

The mechanism of echolocation in Kozhanovs has reached a very high level of perfection. We cannot even imagine the range of sounds perceived by these animals. A person perceives vibrations whose frequencies lie in the range from about 20 to 16-20 thousand Hz. Kozhany, perceiving sounds of the same interval, also perceive ultrasounds, the frequency of which reaches 120-150 thousand Hz. They perceive not only an ultrasonic signal coming from another source, but also a reflection (echo) of their own signal. This is the first and main condition for the phenomenon of echolocation. They distinguish the reflection of "their" signal from a mixture of many other sound and ultrasonic waves.

By the speed of the return of the signal (echo), the animals determine the distance to the object (not only to the wall of the cave or the trunk of a tree, but also to such small creatures as a flying Drosophila fly). By reflection of the ultrasonic pulse, the animal accurately determines the shape and size of the object. In this sense, he “sees” objects with his perceiving (hearing) apparatus with no less accuracy than we perceive them with our organs of vision. The pointed-eared bat unmistakably distinguishes a metal square with smooth edges from the same square, on one side of which teeth 3 mm high are cut. Animals recognize targets of the same shape, but different sizes (in 80% of cases) with an area ratio of 1: 1, 1. In 86.6% of cases, the pointed-eared bat distinguishes targets that are the same in size and shape, but one of aluminum, the other of plywood, and in 92.7% the aluminum square differs from the plexiglass. The distance at which the animals recognize targets in experiments is about 2.5 m.

The pointed-eared bat found a wire with a diameter of 2 mm at a distance of up to 3.7 m, and a wire with a diameter of 0.2 mm at a distance of 1.1 le. The horseshoe carrier Megeli found wire 0.08 mm thick in 76.8% of spans.

Chiroptera also use the auditory analyzer when feeding - when searching for and catching insects flying in the air. They hear the noise from the wings of a flying insect and, possibly, the ultrasounds emitted by it at a distance of up to 4 m. Approaching the insect at an average distance of about 2.3 m, the animal speeds up the emission of signals. At a distance of less than 1 m, the frequency reaches 100 Hz, while in the brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) the impulses are perceived as a continuous buzzing before capturing the insect. This happens with well-flying animals of the leather family (moths and leathers).

Horseshoe bats, whose flying apparatus is less perfect, have developed a different adaptation when hunting for flying insects. The fact is that ultrasounds and their reflection are perceived not only by animals, but also by many flying insects, for which they hunt. Some moths can pick up the ultrasonic pulses of kozhanov at a distance of up to 30 m. An insect that has fallen into the ultrasonic beam path is in a more advantageous position than a flying animal. Having detected the signal of the animal, the insect changes the direction of flight or falls into a state of shock: it folds its wings and falls to the ground. The non-buzzing insect is not detected by the leather. But if an insect flies away from the ultrasonic beam of a flying animal, then the animal, approaching, is the first to detect the buzzing of prey and starts chasing. In well-flying animals, when chasing, ultrasonic impulses become more frequent, already directed towards the insect, but the horseshoe bat, which does not “count” on the speed of its flight, ceases to emit impulses at all, becomes numb, thereby disorienting its prey and successfully overtakes it. Only after eating the extracted insect, the horseshoe again begins to emit ultrasounds.

The piscivorous animal Noctilio leporinus from the family of haricotids clearly reacts to the slightest disturbance of the water from fish swimming near the surface, and to the dorsal fin or head of the fish protruding from the water, and seizes the discovered fish with its claws.

The directionality and accuracy of such migrations cannot be explained by mechanical, visual, or echolocation orientation.

The body temperature of leather and horseshoe-nosed animals varies depending on the condition of the animal. In the active state, in the small horseshoe bat, the body temperature varies from 34.4 to 37.4 °, and in 13 species of leather horseshoes - from 35 to 40.6 °. However, as soon as the animal falls asleep (on a summer day), its body temperature drops to 15-29 °, i.e., approximately to the air temperature in the room where the animal is located. In the state of hibernation, which normally proceeds in caves with temperatures from 0 to 10 ° C, the animals have the same body temperature.

The leather ones are not characterized by constancy, but by changes in body temperature within 56 ° (from -7.5 to +48.5 °). We are not aware of other warm-blooded animals in which body temperature would vary within the same wide range.

The biology of reproduction of bats has its own characteristics. In some fruit bats, the uterus is double, like in marsupials, and in most leatherflies it is bicornuate, like in insectivores and rodents. But in other bats, such as the American leaf-bearers, the uterus is simple, like in primates. Two mammary glands in all animals of this order, like in primates, are located on the chest; nipples are usually one pair (breast). Very few species of kozhan have two pairs of nipples located in pairs on one pair of mammary glands. The genital organs of males are the same as those of higher primates. According to the structure of the reproductive system, the similarity of bats with primates is greater than with any other orders of higher animals.

Many inhabitants of tropical countries have two cycles of maturation of reproductive products per year, two mating seasons and two offspring. In each offspring, most modern bats, like primates, will have only one cub, a few - two, and only in exceptional cases (in two northern species) will be born 3 cubs at a time.

With the resettlement of bats from the tropics (from their homeland) to countries with a temperate and cold climate, twice a year breeding became impossible. In temperate climates, there has been a transition from two breeding cycles to one per year. But in males and females, this transition occurred in different ways.

The maturation of reproductive products in males goes from spring to autumn, and in females - from autumn to spring. Mating of some adult females with males occurs in late summer and early autumn. Other adult and young females mate in the spring. In females after autumn mating in winter, viable spermatozoa are found in the genital tract. Since there are no mature eggs in autumn, fertilization cannot occur during autumn mating. A long-term (up to 6-7 months) preservation of spermatozoa in the genital tract of females (after autumn mating) and in the tubules of the epididymis in males has been established. During spring mating, insemination with spermatozoa of last year's (summer) spermiogenesis occurs and the fertilization of the egg immediately follows.

In recent years, Soviet zoologists have established many interesting details in the biology of the mating season of bats. At the end of summer (according to the observations of K.K. Panyutin in the Voronezh Reserve), the males of the red evenings leave the clusters of females, and each male chooses a special small hollow for himself. In the evenings, the male crawls out to the flight hole (the entrance to the hollow) and from time to time makes unusual sounds that are unusual for another period. This is not a shrill squeak or frequently repeated sounds like the sonorous barking of a small dog, but a melodic and not very loud chirp. Females are attracted by such a serenade of the male, they fly to him and temporarily settle in his hollow.

In dwarf bats, the behavior is almost the same as in red evenings. Only the male dwarf sings a serenade in flight, and sits silently in the shelter. In both species, males do not chase females, do not pursue them. Females themselves look for males and join them themselves. Cohabitation during the period when the reproductive system of females is at rest indicates the similarity of kozhanovyh with primates.

Even more amazing details of mating life are found in northern leather jackets, earflaps and night bats (three types), wintering in the north of our country - in the Leningrad and Novgorod regions - in the areas of their summer habitation in caves with a regime suitable for winter hibernation (low positive temperature and high air humidity).

Observations by P.P. Strelkov showed that among the females of the mentioned species flying into wintering caves, only 14% were inseminated. In the middle of winter, there were already more than half of inseminated females, and by the end of hibernation (by spring), all the females were inseminated. The bulk of females are inseminated during deep winter hibernation, when the animals do not feed and most of the time are in a state of deep stupor, and their body temperature is lowered to 2-3 °, breathing and heart contractions are slowed down tens and hundreds of times compared to the active state. . It has not yet been clarified who is more active at this time - male or female. Judging by the behavior of migratory bats and evening bats, females are more active.

The period of embryonic development depends on the weather (or air temperature in the spring shelter) and on the number of females in the colony. The higher the temperature of the environment in which the pregnant female is located, the faster the development of the embryo in her body. Pregnant females actively seek to form large aggregations, to unite with each other and to settle in dense groups in which one female is closely pressed against the others. With this arrangement, even in sleeping females, the body temperature becomes higher than the ambient temperature in the shelter, which accelerates the development of embryos. Such a phenomenon of collective thermoregulation was noticed and then studied in detail by K. K. Panyutin.

Most species of kozhanovyh will give birth to one cub. In bats and long-winged bats, the embryo always develops only in the right horn of the uterus.

At the moment of childbirth, the female earflap is suspended in a horizontal position (belly up), holding onto the ceiling with all limbs, or in a vertical position, but with her head up. The cub rolls out into the cavity formed by the interfemoral membrane bent to the belly. The afterbirth is eaten by the female. Horseshoe bats and fruit bats give birth, obviously, hanging upside down, and their cub falls into the cavity between the belly and wings folded in front. In captivity, childbirth occurs with various complications. In females of the same colony, childbirth stretches from several hours to 10-15 days. Large horseshoe bats (in Tashkent) give birth at the end of May; Bukhara horseshoe bats, dwarf bats (in Central Asia) and other leather species (in the Moscow region) give birth in the second half of June.

The baby will be born large. In a small horseshoe bat, for example, the mass of a newborn is more than 40% of the mass of the mother, but his body is naked, his eyes are closed, the auricles are randomly wrinkled, and the mouth opening is small. At the moment of birth, the cub already emits a sonorous squeak, and, having barely dried, crawls over the mother's body to her breast nipple. The jaws of a newborn are seated with milk teeth; one, two or three sharp apices of the milk tooth are curved inwards. With these teeth, the cub is strengthened on the mother's nipple and in the first days of life clings to the nipple without opening its mouth. In horseshoe bats, the cub clings to the mastoid appendages in the inguinal region that are not connected with the mammary glands, moving to the breast nipples only for the time of feeding.

Females of some leather species in the first days after birth fly out to feed along with their offspring. At the same time, one or two cubs hang on it, holding only their mother's nipples with their teeth. Later, these females, and from the first days, females of other species leave their cubs in the shelter and return to them after chasing insects in the air. During the feeding of their parents, the cubs huddle in groups, forming something like a nursery or kindergarten. The returning females feed the cubs in the first days with milk, and a few grown-up ones, probably, with the insects they brought. The female Bukhara horseshoe bat, for example, accurately finds and feeds only her cub, driving away strangers. Some other females feed any of the hungry cubs they meet. For example, a female forest bat fed (in the wild, in her shelter) a cub of a two-colored leather. Having eaten, the cub strengthens itself next to its mother or remains until the next flight on her body. The female horseshoe bat wraps the cub in wide wings while resting.

The babies are growing very fast. By the end of the first week, the mass of the cub doubles. The body is covered with short hairs. Previously shriveled auricles rise, acquiring a normal appearance. The eyes of the forest bat open on the 3-4th day, those of the long-eared bat - on the 5-6th day. The bones of the skull are already fused (the sutures between them disappear). During the second week, in the presence of milk teeth, permanent ones begin to erupt. The fur becomes thicker and taller. At the end of the second week, the calf's body can already heat up on its own (up to 33° and above). In small leathers and horseshoe bats, in the third week of life, the change of milk teeth to permanent ones is already over and the ability to fly is acquired. In terms of mass, they are still noticeably inferior to adults, but in size (especially wings) they almost reach their parents. Soon the first molt in life passes. The dull youthful hairline is replaced by fur, as in adults. The animals also begin to behave like an adult: for example, Bukhara horseshoe bats at the age of 30-45 days already independently and alone embark on a long journey - to other countries (to caves) for a long winter.

Even before complete independence, about 30-50% of the animals in the colony die. For 8-9 years there is an almost complete change of livestock. But some individuals live up to 19-20 years. The record of longevity among leather belongs to brown bat(Myotis lucifugus) is a small animal weighing only 6-7 g. One brown bat lived in natural conditions for 24 years.

The nutrition of leather animals living in tropical countries is varied. For example, some leaf-bearers of tropical America probably secondarily adapted to feeding on juicy fruits and flower nectar. Close to leaf-nosed desmodes have adapted to feeding on the blood of higher vertebrates. They attack some birds, wild and domestic mammals, and sometimes sleeping people. One of Panama leaf-beetles (Phyllostomus hastatus) and South Indian spear(Lyroderma lyra) prefer small birds and animals to all other types of food. Some bats and harelips feed almost exclusively on small fish and aquatic invertebrates. However, the vast majority of tropical and all from countries with a temperate and cold climate eat mainly flying insects that are active during the twilight and night hours.

Hunting for flying insects is carried out at a very fast pace. The small brown bat in its natural setting made 1159 throws for insects in one hour, and brown leather(Vespertilio fuscus) - 1283 rolls. Even if in half of the cases the animals missed, the rate of catching was about 500-600 insects per hour. In the laboratory, the brown bat managed to catch about 20 fruit flies in 1 minute and often captured two insects within one second. The red evening worm ate (almost continuously) 115 flour worms one after another in half an hour, increasing its body weight by almost 1/3. During the evening feeding in nature, the water bat ate up to 3-3.2 g, which was also about 1/3 of its mass.

Large leather ones easily overcome relatively large insects. A dwarf bat hunting near a lamp catches small butterflies and from time to time pounces on a flying hawk moth, trying to capture the insect's thick belly with its small mouth. Evening bats and real kozhany prefer to catch beetles, and large bats and horseshoe bats - nocturnal butterflies; dwarf bats catch small Diptera and small scoops. Some nocturnal cocoon-worms (of the genus Dendrolimnus) are caught by bats, bats and horseshoe bats, but not eaten.

Only in cool and windy weather, some bats and late kozhans catch flightless (crawling) insects. Wushan catches flightless insects even in good weather. He grabs them by quickly running along a horizontal branch of a tree or from the ends of branches and leaves, while stopping for some moment at one point in airspace (before the end of a leaf or branch). When the weather is cool in the evenings, some animals (for example, northern leatherbacks, whiskered bats, etc.) can hunt for insects during the day when it is warmer.

Usually leather (and horseshoe bats) feed at twilight or night hours. Long-winged bats, long-winged bats, pointed-eared bats, and tube-nosed bats feed only at night. They fly once a day. However, most leather bats (bats, many night bats, all evening bats, etc.) are crepuscular species. They are active twice a day - in the evening and early in the morning (at dawn). The evening flight begins either shortly after sunset (at the bats and evening bats), or when dusk is gathering (at the water bat). During the evening departure, the animals are mainly busy hunting for insects. With an abundance of insects, dwarf bats, for example, manage to get enough in 15-20 minutes. Usually, feeding lasts about 40-50 minutes and less often - 1.5-2 hours. Having sated, the animals return to their daytime shelters, spend a significant part of the night there, and fly out again before dawn. On this morning, more friendly and short-term departure, many animals do not move away from their shelter, circle in a swarm in the immediate vicinity of it and do not catch insects.

In countries with a cold and temperate climate, the number of nocturnal flying insects is relatively small, and their activity is timed only for the warm season of the year. These features of the food of the bulk of the leather ones determine many features of their biology: the nature of quantitative accumulations, local migrations, long-distance migrations and hibernation, a reduction in the number of offspring per year to one, etc.

Shelters (such as burrows or nests) are not built by bats themselves. They settle in natural shelters or built by other animals and humans. A variety of shelters can be divided into the following groups: caves (natural, such as karst) and cavernous underground structures (such as mines); cavities under the domes of Mohammedan mausoleums, tombs and mosques; shelters directly related to human habitation (attics, cavities under eaves, behind sheathing, shutters, platbands); tree hollows and occasional shelters.

Caves and underground structures have a relatively stable microclimate. In caves located in the north, for example, in the Leningrad region or in the Middle Urals, for a long time (for months) the low positive temperature of the environment, about 0-10 ° C, is kept. Such conditions are very favorable for hibernation, but in summer these caves are usually empty. In the south of Turkmenistan there is a wonderful Bakharden cave with a large underground lake, the water in which even at the end of winter is heated to 32-33 ° C. In summer, tens of thousands of long-winged, hundreds of sharp-eared bats and dozens of horseshoe bats (three species) live in this cave. But in winter, in such a cave, due to the high temperature, the animals cannot hibernate, only an insignificant part of them remains (in the cool side passages of the front section of the cave).

In summer, the cavities under the domes of tombs and mosques are willingly populated by cave bats and horseshoe bats, but in winter these rooms freeze through and therefore are uninhabited.

Shelters in human housing for some leather ones are the main ones, and the bats themselves have become the same house species, like some rodents (house mice and rats) or some birds (like rock doves, sparrows, barn swallows, etc.) - In our country, such brownies types of steel, for example, late leather, dwarf bat, leather-like bat, etc.

Hollows of trees are readily populated by many night bats, evening bats, forest bats, ear bats only in summer, and in winter, due to the low temperature, wintering (in the middle and northern regions) does not happen in them.

Random shelters are extremely diverse. They are inhabited mainly by widespread and ecologically plastic species (northern kozhanok, mustachioed bat, two-colored kozhan and a few others). Small accumulations or individual animals of these species were found, for example, in the burrows of sand martins, in piles of firewood, in haystacks, etc. Herding (formation of colonies) is characteristic of most chiropteran species. In one colony there can be from two or three individuals to several million animals living in one shelter.

In the south of the United States (32 km from the city of San Antonio) is the Bracken Cave, in which up to 20,000,000 Brazilian folded lips (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana) settle in some years in the summer. The departure of such a multitude of animals stretches from 16:00 to 22:00, and the return to the cave - from 24:00 to 12:00. Under the conditions of such an accumulation of animals, a peculiar microclimate is created in the cave: the air is saturated with ammonia, carbon dioxide stagnates near the floor, the humidity is high and the air temperature reaches 40 ° C. The cave quickly fills with droppings, and only annual cleaning (removal of guano to fertilize the fields) allows the animals to settle there every summer. In autumn, folded lips fly south to Colombia. Only females return back, while males linger in Mexico.

Of the leather ones, the long-winged ones achieved the greatest skill in flight. They form the largest (among leather) clusters in one summer shelter. So, in the Bakhardenskaya cave (in Turkmenistan) at the end of the 30s of our century, according to our calculations, there were about 40,000 individuals in the colony when they left for feeding.

In other leather and horseshoe bats in summer colonies there are only up to several hundred, less often - up to 3000-4000 individuals. A greater number of them could not feed on the distance that they can cover during their flight, moderate in speed and not long enough in endurance. The size of a summer colony is often determined by the perfection of the aircraft, the speed and endurance of flight, and the abundance of food (nocturnal flying insects). This applies to accumulations of animals of one single species.

Mixed colonies, which include animals of two or more species, do not obey this rule, since different species feed on different groups of insects, at different flight altitudes, and one species does not interfere with the other in search of its food.

Bats of some species even prefer to settle in commonwealth (in colonies) with other species. For example, single giant evenings are usually found in colonies of red evenings and forest bats. The southern horseshoe bats in the Bakharden cave did not gather in a separate cluster, like the Mediterranean horseshoe bats in the same cave, but singly climbed into isolated heaps of thousands of long-winged. In the south of Western Europe, in the Caucasus and Central Asia, it is found tricolor night bat(Myotis emarginatus). Nobody ever found her in a shelter (in a cave or under the dome of a mosque), if there were no horseshoe bats there. Commonwealth with horseshoe bats turned out to be a characteristic biological feature of this species of bat.

Large and usually mixed colonies (up to 14 species) form in caves favorable for hibernation.

The desire to unite with each other, the herd instinct in bats is so strongly developed that sometimes it deprives them of their freedom or life. A burdock branch with five mummies of the dead on its prickly earflaps was sent to the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from the Ussuri Territory. Apparently, on the alarm signal of one earflap, accidentally entangled in thorns, others flew in and also died.

Enemies of insectivorous bats, fortunately, are not numerous. Owls, owls attack flying animals, however, even among owls, bats are only an occasional prey, an addition to their main food. The hawk Machaeo-rhamphus living in the tropics of the Old World prefers bats to other prey.

A variety of mites are found on almost all species and often in large numbers. The leather mite (Ixodes vespertilionis) lives on hairy areas of the body and, when fed, takes on a bean-like shape. Others, like Spinturnix mystacinus, live exclusively on the surface of the membranes.

On some, especially smooth-haired leather ones (vessels, bats, long-winged bugs), 2 types of bed bugs feed: the common bed bug (Cimex lectula-rius) and the bat bug (C. pipistrelli) close to it.

2) fresh droppings (guano) - fly larvae and beetles that eat the larvae.

In shelters that are vast in size and densely populated by animals, the population of cohabitants reaches greater complexity and diversity. So, in the Bakharden cave, in close mutual dependence, there are more than 40 species of animals that form a complex biocenotic complex. The main, leading part of this complex is made up of long-winged bats, in much smaller numbers - pointed-eared bats and horseshoe bats (Zvida).

The practical significance of small bats (leather) is predominantly positive. Only desmodes (vampires) of South America, which feed on the blood of vertebrates, and sometimes humans, are considered harmful. The main harm caused by them is associated not so much with the loss of blood, but with the transmission of rabies virus and pathogenic trypanosis by desmods. The rabies virus has also been found in South European leatherbacks, but it is not yet clear how they can contract the disease.

Even the frugivorous leaf-bearers of South and Central America are not considered harmful. They feed on the juicy fruits of wild trees not used by humans. The plucked fruits are often eaten not at the place of their growth, but are transferred to other places convenient for the animals. Small seeds of many fruit trees that have passed through the digestive tract of leaf-bearing plants do not lose their ability to germinate. Therefore, large leaf-bearers are regarded more as distributors of tree species.

Long-tongued leaf-nosed plants contribute to the pollination of plants. In some species of tropical trees, pollination is carried out only with the participation of leaf-bearing plants.

The vast majority of bats in tropical countries and all species of the fauna of the USSR are only beneficial, destroying many harmful insects.

Large leatherflies eat harmful night butterflies and beetles, while small bats, bats, long-winged bats and long-winged bats destroy many small Diptera, including mosquitoes (vectors of malaria) and mosquitoes (vectors of Leishmania). Dwarf bats destroy a lot of mosquitoes and mosquitoes all summer. Longwings of the Bakharden colony alone (about 40,000 individuals) ate about 150 kg of food in one night, or about 1.5 million insects the size of an average flour worm.

Some other indicators also indicate a noticeable effect of kozhanovyh on the decrease in the number of insects. Under the influence of a highly developed herd instinct, these animals everywhere strive to unite with each other. In the presence of favorable shelters, they accumulate to the limit, which is only possible with the usual food reserves of the area. In the case of complete (saturated) colonization, the leatherflies of each species occupy shelters and eat insects according to their specialization. Differing in the species composition of food, in time and duration of flight, in areas and air layers of feeding, animals from dusk to dawn are busy chasing insects when their partners (insectivorous birds) are sleeping. If there is not enough food in this area, the animals change the place of feeding or even migrate to other, more forage areas. During periods of mass appearance of flying insects (for example, May or June beetles), the evening and kozhan that eat them eat more than normal and quickly get fat, although in other periods these animals are not fat. With a tendency to obesity, the moderate fatness of the bulk of the animals during most of the season of activity indicates that they exterminate insects to the minimum possible and do not have an excess for accumulating fat reserves.

Bat droppings are a high-quality fertilizer. In terms of nitrogen and phosphorus content, it is many times superior to other natural fertilizers. A large accumulation of guano in the caves of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Crimea and the Carpathians can be used to fertilize the gardens and fields closest to the caves with valuable garden and industrial crops.

Bats are of considerable interest as irreplaceable objects for solving a number of general biological and technical problems. Lowering body temperature is now used to treat certain human diseases.

The flight mechanics of Kozhanovs has long attracted the attention of designers of non-powered aircraft. In the first models, the wings were made of solid panels, structurally similar to leather wings.

Many institutes and laboratories in different countries are engaged in a detailed study of echolocation, which is of not only theoretical but also great practical interest.

The task of the future is to study the mechanism of geographical orientation, which is so well developed in bats.

There are no harmful bats in the fauna of the Soviet Union. All of them bring greater or lesser benefits and deserve every possible protection and attraction.

We are talking about both the direct protection of the animals themselves, and the protection of their shelters, especially rare shelters favorable for winter hibernation (caves and artificial underground structures). By cutting down hollow trees (summer shelters for bats), we deprive them of the opportunity to settle in forest parks or forest areas.

In attracting Kozhanovs in the southern regions of our country, it may be the improvement of existing caves and other underground structures (abandoned mines, mines, etc.), clearing blocked entrances or, conversely, closing unnecessary, especially conspicuous and accessible openings. By reducing the number and area of ​​entrances to underground cavities, better microclimatic conditions are created (in particular, the elimination of drafts, an increase in air humidity), favorable not only for summer habitation, but also for wintering. In the southern caves, not only local animals winter, but also those arriving from the northern regions.

In forest areas and parks where hollow trees are systematically removed, leather can be attracted by hanging nest boxes with a rounded flight hole (for evening parties, water bats, earflaps, etc.) bats, two-colored leathers, etc. You can strengthen nest boxes on the side of the trunk free from knots at a height of 3-4 to 7-8 le, it is better at the edge of a forest or park, at an alley, clearing or forest clearing, and especially near the shore of a lake or pond .

About 1000 species of bats are grouped into 2 suborders:

1) fruit bats (Pteropoidei) with one family (Ptero-pidae) and

2) leather or bats (Vespertilioidei), with 14 families; one of them - the family of glue-legs (Natalidae) - some taxonomists divide into 3 families. The fauna of the USSR includes 40 species from 3 families of only the second suborder.

Animals of Russia. Directory

- (Chiroptera) detachment from the class of mammals. R. are capable of long active flight. The forelimbs are turned into wings, only the first finger remains free: the phalanges of the other fingers, the metacarpal bones and the forearm are elongated and serve ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

uh; pl. Zool. An order of mammals with limbs adapted for flight, which includes bats. * * * Chiroptera order of mammals. The forelimbs are turned into wings. Capable of flight. 2 suborders of fruit bats and bats ... encyclopedic Dictionary

This is a list of mammal species found in Argentina. As of February 2011, there are a total of 398 mammal species in Argentina, of which one is extinct (EX), six are critically endangered ... ... Wikipedia

Includes 203 species of mammals living in Bhutan. Contents 1 Subclass: Animals (Theria) 1.1 Infraclass: Placental (Eutheria) ... Wikipedia

It includes about 300 species of the class Mammals living or living in historical time on the territory of Russia, as well as species introduced and forming stable populations. Contents 1 Order Rodents (Rodentia) 1.1 Squirrel family ... ... Wikipedia

Mammals listed in the Red Book of Ukraine a list of 68 species of rare and endangered mammals included in the latest edition of the Red Book of Ukraine (2009). Compared to the previous edition (1994), the edition ... ... Wikipedia

Bats are systematically close to insectivores. This is a group of mammals adapted for flight in the air. Wings serve leathery membranes located between the very long fingers of the forelimbs, sides of the body, hind limbs and tail. The first finger of the forelimbs is free and does not participate in the formation of the wing. Like birds, the sternum bears keel, to which the pectoral muscles are attached, setting the wings in motion.

Flight is agile, controlled almost exclusively by wing movement. Bats can take off from high places: the ceiling of a cave, a tree trunk, and from flat ground, and even from the water surface. In this case, the animal first jumps up, as a result of a strong jerky movement of the forelimbs, then proceeds to flight.

Bats are distributed throughout the globe, except for the Arctic and Antarctic. The total number of species is about 1000. The order includes two suborders: fruit bats (Megachiroptera) And the bats (Microchiroptera).

Suborder Fruit bats (Megachiroptera)

Representatives of this suborder are common in the tropics of Asia, Africa and Australia. They feed on juicy fruits and in some places do great harm to gardening. The eyes are comparatively large; They look for food, guided by sight and a very sharp sense of smell. Few species inhabiting caves are characterized by the ability to echolocation. The day is spent more often on trees, less often in hollows, under the eaves of buildings, in caves, accumulating in many hundreds and even thousands of individuals.

The total number of fruit bat species is about 130. The largest of the true fruit bats kalong (Pteropus vampyrus) lives in the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines. Its body length is up to 40 cm.

Suborder Bats (Microchiroptera)

Includes small species that have sharp teeth and are relatively large auricles. Daytime is spent in shelters, attics, in hollows, in caves. The lifestyle is twilight and nocturnal. Numerous thin tactile hairs are scattered over the body and on the surface of the flying membranes and auricles of bats. Vision is weak and is of little importance for orientation in space.

Hearing in bats exclusively thin. The hearing range is huge - from 0.12 to 190 kHz. (In humans, the range of audibility lies in the range of 0.40 - 20 kHz.) sound echolocation. The bats emit ultrasounds frequency from 30 to 70 kHz is jerky, in the form of pulses with a duration of 0.01 - 0.005 s. The pulse frequency depends on the distance between the animal and the obstacle. In preparation for flight, the animal emits from 5 to 10, and in flight directly in front of an obstacle - up to 60 pulses per second. Ultrasounds reflected from an obstacle are perceived by the animal's hearing organs, which provides orientation in flight at night and the prey of flying insects.

Most bats are found in tropical and subtropical countries. Several dozen species live in countries with a cold and temperate climate. Many species from the northern regions fly south. The length of the flyways is very different - from tens and hundreds to thousands of kilometers.

The number of species is about 800. Most bats are insectivorous. They feed on Diptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. During the waking period, the metabolism is very intense, and often bats eat an amount of food equal to approximately their own body weight per day. Catching nocturnal insects, bats are very useful in biocenoses.

Some South American species feed on the blood of mammals, sometimes humans; are, for example, South American vampires family Desmodusontidae. Blood-eating bats bite through the skin of the victim, but do not suck the blood, but lick it off the surface of the body with their tongue. The saliva of such bats has analgesic properties and prevents blood clotting. This explains the painlessness of the bite and the prolonged flow of blood from the wound.

Among bats there are also carnivores: for example, those living in South America common spear-nosed (Phyllostomus hastatatuus).

They breed slowly, give birth to 1 - 2 cubs. Mating occurs in autumn and spring. During autumn mating, spermatozoa linger in the female genital tract, and fertilization occurs only in spring, when females ovulate. During spring mating, ovulation and fertilization occur simultaneously.

About 40 species are known in the fauna of Russia. Typical ones are ushan (Piecotus auritus), redhead party (Nyctalus noctula). Some species overwinter in place, hibernating. In places in winter they accumulate in large numbers. So, about 40 thousand bats live in the Bakharden cave (Turkmenistan). There are also many other places of mass accumulation of bats.

Order Chiroptera- the only group of mammals adapted to active flight. They have a fold of skin stretching along the body - from the top of the second finger of the forelimbs to the tail, serving as a wing. The fingers of the forelimb (except the first) are significantly elongated.

Like birds, chiropterans have an outgrowth of the sternum - a keel, well-developed muscles that ensure the movement of the wings. They are very manoeuvrable. Bats are nocturnal. Their eyesight is poorly developed, but their hearing is very thin. Most species are capable of echolocation.

Echolocation - the ability of animals to emit high-frequency sound signals and perceive sounds reflected from objects located in their path.

Echolocation allows bats to navigate during flight, as well as to catch prey in the air. For better perception of sound signals, chiropterans have well-developed auricles. Even having lost sight, the animal, thanks to echolocation, is well oriented in flight. During the day, these animals hide in attics, hollows and caves. In winter, some species hibernate, while others migrate to warmer climes before the onset of cold weather. Approximately 1000 species are known, among which fruit bats and bats are distinguished.

fruit bats distributed in tropical countries of Asia, Africa, Australia. They feed on plant foods, in particular fruits, which can be harmful to gardening. The ability to echolocation is poorly developed, but vision and smell are well developed. Representative - flying dog, or kalong.

Majority bats capable of echolocation. They feed mainly on insects, but predatory species and bloodsuckers are known. (you-peers). They settle in caves, mines, hollow trees, in the attics of houses. Bats live up to 20 years.

Vampires live in South and Central America. The incisors of their upper jaw have a pointed edge, acting like a razor, animals cut the skin of animals or humans and lick the protruding blood. The saliva of vampires contains substances that prevent blood clotting (therefore, the wound bleeds for a long time), as well as painkillers, so their bites are insensitive. Vampires are harmful to animal husbandry, as inflammation can occur at the site of the wound. In addition, they carry pathogens of infectious diseases, such as rabies. material from the site

Horseshoe bats (have a leathery formation on the muzzle, resembling a horseshoe), evening night, night bats, bats, dolphins they feed exclusively on insects, therefore they are beneficial. They need protection, as the number of many species and the territory of their distribution are declining.

Features of the order Chiroptera:

• capable of active flight and echolocation;
• the forelimbs have evolved into wings;
• developed keel and pectoral muscles.

As a progressive sign of a group - often primates - a high rate of evolution is sometimes called, but this provision needs to be categorically clarified.

Teniodonts. Above - skulls: top row (from left to right) - Onychodectes, Wortmania, Ectoganus;
middle row - Psittacotherium, Stylinodon;
bottom - Onychodectes, Stylinodon

On the successive series of Paleocene taeniodonta Taeniodonta, one can see how from a creature similar to insectivores and opossums - Onychodectes– through a dog-like beast – Wortmania- a strange monster can develop like Psittacotherium, ectoganus or Stylinodon the size of a bear. Probably, among the Paleocene animals, teniodonts had the maximum rate of evolution. At the same time, they were not considered by anyone as particularly progressive mammals.

Teniodonts can serve as a clear example of how you can quickly specialize and lose the opportunity to become a "true primate".

Another example of the fastest specialization is Chiroptera bats. Bats probably already existed in the Upper Cretaceous of South America and the Upper Paleocene of France and Germany (Gingerich, 1987; Hand et al. 1994; Hooker, 1996), and unambiguous representatives of the Lower Eocene are little different from modern ones, and were found immediately in dozens of species on all continents, including Australia.

Remarkably, the teeth of the Lower Eocene bats are almost identical to those of the primitive placental type. Cimolestes and the most ancient shrews, so that the relationship of all these groups is beyond doubt, which is unambiguously confirmed by genetic data. Despite the fact that in the genetic-cladistic schemes, bats fall into the laurasiatheria Laurasiatheria, and primates into the euarchantoglyres Euarchontoglires, the similarity of these two groups has always been obvious to all taxonomists, starting with C. Linnaeus, and was reflected in the creation of the "archon" Archonta group, uniting bats, primates, tupai and woolly wings. The similarity of the ancestors of the representatives of the "archon" was enhanced by the arboreal way of life of the ancestors of bats and coleopterans and, at least, by pre-adaptation to it in the ancestors of primates and tupai. Obviously, it is not possible to identify the immediate Lower Paleocene or Cretaceous ancestors of bats because their teeth are indistinguishable from the teeth of other primitive animals. It is possible that some Paleocene forms, known only by teeth and now considered to be primates, plesiadapis, or some kind of insectivore in the broad sense, will turn out to be primitive bats if better studied. Until bats had wings and echolocation, we consider them "insectivorous", when these specializations appear (judging by Onychonycterisfinneyi, flight arose before echolocation (Simmons et al., 2008)), we already see ready-made bats.

As in the case of birds and pterosaurs, the flapping flight of bats arose very quickly, and it is extremely difficult to capture the moment of its formation, for this you need to have incredible luck.

Chiropterans are unique in that the first stages of their evolution were characterized by maximum rates, and the subsequent stages were extremely low (more precisely, at the level of species and genus formation, the rates were high, but the body plan already at the family level remained practically unchanged from the Lower Eocene); one could even argue that macroevolution in bats ended at a time when it was just beginning in primates. Obviously, the reason for this was adaptation to flight. The already poor foundations of the structure of the brain of the first ancestors were hopelessly crushed by the need to lighten the weight; this is clearly expressed in the rapid overgrowth of the sutures of the skull, which was already characteristic of the early Eocene Icaronycterys. We are also not talking about the grasping ability of the limbs, but rather about the clinging; Lower Eocene Onychonycteris had claws on all fingers of the wing, and the rest of the synchronous relatives had already lost two or three.

True, bats have two significant advantages over insectivores: they live long, and therefore can accumulate rich life experience, and are very sociable - up to caring for hungry relatives of vampires Desmodus rotundus. But these advantages are negated by the small size of the brain - a high price to pay for the conquest of heaven. Surprisingly, for tens of millions of years, not a single bat has lost the ability to fly and has not returned to a terrestrial or arboreal lifestyle (in the fantastic fauna of the future, the inventive mind of D. Dixon dreamed of predatory terrestrial vampires walking on their front paws and grabbing their prey with their hind legs, but this infernal image, fortunately, remains purely hypothetical and remains on the conscience of its creator).

The so-called "flying primate" hypothesis, according to which Megachiroptera megachiroptera - bats - acquired the ability to fly independently of other bats - Microchiroptera microchiroptera, and also arose from the most ancient primates (Pettigrew, 1986; Pettigrew et al. ., 1989; Pettigrew et al., 2008). Many arguments were cited as evidence, the main of which was a specific type of neural connection of the retina with the upper colliculi of the quadrigemina in the midbrain - unique for primates, coleopterans and fruit bats, as well as the absence of echolocation in the vast majority of the latter, in contrast to small echolocating bats. Other evidence for the independent emergence of macro- and microchiropters has also been cited.

At a certain moment, the concept of "flying primates" almost took over, but immediately suffered a crushing defeat from geneticists, who quite convincingly proved the monophyly of bats (Mindell et al., 1991);

attempts have been made to challenge these genetic results (Hutcheon et al., 1998), but they are not accepted by most taxonomists. However, the recognition of the common origin of bats cannot reject the many amazing parallels between bats and primates. Even if these similarities have evolved convergently, they are too complex to be entirely accidental; yet this situation is a reflection of the extreme closeness of the ancestors of both orders. There are no fossil forms that would "hang" between bats and primates (the African early Miocene fruit bat is described Propottoleakeyi, whose name speaks for itself (Simpson, 1967; Walker, 1967), but this is a matter of confusion, not intermediateness) is a consequence of the rapid specialization of the former.

A lot of reasoning has been spent on clarifying the question - whether the ancestors of bats were insectivorous or fruit-eating. The teeth of the oldest known forms are "insectivorous", but the Paleocene ones could well have been more fond of the works of flora. The ongoing debate on this issue, as well as the existence of both types of diet among modern bats, is another confirmation of the fragility of the line between these two diets, no matter how different they may seem.

In general, the sequence of specializations of bats seems to be something like this: judging by the most primitive bat Onychonycteris, which did not have developed echolocation (although there is another opinion that it could have had “laryngeal echolocation” (Veselka et al., 2010)) and fed on insects, echolocation arose later than flight, and insects were the first diet; other synchronous bats are also insectivorous, but echolocating. Judging by the absence of echolocation in most fruit-eating fruit bats and its presence in some representatives of the same group (Egyptian flying dog Rousettusaegyptiacus echolocates by clicking its tongue), and also due to its preservation in frugivorous and nectarivorous microchiropters, echolocation could disappear in frugivorous forms, but not necessarily; echolocation and insectivorousness are present in Hipposideridae, horseshoe-nosed Rhinolophidae, pseudo-vampire Megadermatidae, pig-nosed Craseonycteridae, and mouse-tailed Rhinopomatidae genetically close to bats; on the other hand, insectivores repeatedly and independently switched to fruit-eating. On the other hand, all modern insectivorous forms have developed echolocation. Judging by the development of a complicated nerve connection between the retina and the quadrigemina, it was precisely in non-echolocating bats and the primitive variant in all other bats that the "primate" variant of the nervous system arose independently in bats. All these subtleties seem to be extraneous to the problem of the origin of primates, but in fact they are directly related to it.

After all, common ancestors imply that primates had a chance to develop similar adaptations.

They fly, but not birds or insects. Outwardly, they are very similar to mice, but not rodents. Who are these amazing animals that are a mystery of nature? Fruit bats, kalongs, pokovonos, red evenings - all these are bats, the list of which includes approximately 1000 species.

Unusual representatives of mammals

The features of bats primarily lie in their ability to fly. This becomes possible due to the special structure of the upper limbs. But they are not turned into wings at all. The thing is that along the entire body from the last phalanx of the second finger to the tail there is a fold of skin. It forms a kind of wing. Order Chiroptera has another similarity with birds. Both have a special outgrowth of the sternum - the keel. It is to it that the muscles that set the wings in motion are attached.

Order Chiroptera

These animals are nocturnal. During the day they sleep, and at dusk they fly out of their shelters to hunt. Their habitats are caves, mines, hollows of old trees, attics of houses. Chiroptera mammals have all the characteristic features of this class. They feed their young with milk, have hair, epidermal formations - claws, and their skin contains numerous glands: sebaceous, sweat and milk. Bats see very poorly. This is a characteristic feature for animals leading a nocturnal lifestyle. But it compensates for this, which is more important in complete darkness. In order to navigate in such conditions, bats have additional adaptations.

What is echolocation?

Chiroptera mammals, or rather most of them, are capable of emitting high frequencies. Other living organisms cannot perceive them. Such signals are reflected from surfaces encountered along the path of the animal. So chiroptera mammals easily orient themselves in complete darkness and move freely in such conditions. This ability also allows them to hunt prey in the air. In order to catch sound signals even better, all animals of this order have characteristic, well-developed auricles.

real vampires

There are many terrible legends about winged mammals. Like, they all attack people at night, feeding on their blood. However, all these rumors are greatly exaggerated. For example, bulldogs hunt insects at high altitudes. And many species of fruit bats feed on sweet fruits, causing significant damage to agriculture and horticulture.

But in South and Central Africa, real vampires really live. Their feature is the presence of pointed edges of the upper incisors. They act like a razor. With them, vampires cut the surface of the skin of animals or humans and lick the blood from this place. Such a wound can be very dangerous. The thing is that the saliva of vampires contains a substance that prevents blood clotting. The victim does not always feel the bite, because the secretions also contain painkillers. Very often the wound becomes very inflamed. Such tropical vampires can also be carriers of dangerous diseases such as rabies. Therefore, they cause great harm to animal husbandry.

Diversity of the order Chiroptera

The representatives of bats are divided into two groups: fruit bats and bats. The former prefer to live in the countries of Australia, Asia and Africa. In food, they give preference to fruits. Therefore, they do not need to hunt. In connection with this feature, their echolocation is much less developed than in other representatives of winged mammals. But this is offset by excellent vision and smell. Bats, unlike fruit bats, are mostly predators and blood-sucking animals. Echolocation helps them hunt at night. Such individuals live up to 20 years. Consider some amazing representatives of bats in more detail.

fruit bats

The value of bats in nature and human life

Representatives of animals, which are discussed in our article, bring both benefit and harm to their livelihoods. For example, in Pakistan, the flying dog is heavily hunted illegally because it has a very valuable fat. In some countries, bat dishes are a gourmet delicacy. It is known that in ancient times, the Incas decorated their clothes with the fur of these animals. Moreover, such an outfit was a sign of wealth and power. There are cases when bats ate in large quantities, thereby contributing to its growth. Chiroptera feeding on fruits contribute to their distribution. Overcoming decent distances during the day, bats and fruit bats also carry their seeds. Together with undigested food residues, they enter the soil, far from the area of ​​​​growth. All this contributes to the settlement of many plant species on the surface of the planet.

Bats occupy their important niche in the food chains of many ecosystems. They not only destroy various living components of biocenoses. Transferring dangerous infectious diseases, they are able to regulate their numbers. The negative significance of bats is also due to the fact that, eating juicy fruits, they increasingly prefer to feast on them in gardens, causing significant damage to the crop. These animals, being the basis of myths and legends about vampires, are often safer than many others. So, the order of bats is the only systematic group of the class of mammals capable of active flight due to the presence of a keel and skin folds that form wings.