Bats

930 Words2 Pages

Bats

Contents

1. Title Page

Page... 1

2. Contents

Page... 2

3. Bat Facts

Page... 3-4

4. Congress Ave. Bridge

Page... 5-6

5. How To Get A Bat Out Of Your House

Page... 6

6. About Bat Houses

Page... 7

7. References

Page... 8+

My report is on bats. I will start my story off by telling you some

facts about bats.

Bat Facts

1. Did you know that the worlds smallest mammal is a Bumblebee bat that lives

in Thailand. It weighs less than a penny! 2. Vampire bats adopt orphan pups

(the name for a baby bat) and have been known to risk their lives to share food

with the less fortunate. 3. The African Heart-Nosed bat can hear the footsteps

of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of over six feet! 4. The giant

Flying Fox bat from Indonesia has a wing span of six feet! 5. Disk-winged bats

of Latin America have adhesive disks on both feet that enable them to live in

unfurling banana leaves (or even walk up a window pane). 6. Nearly 1,000 kinds

of bats account for almost a quarter of all mammal species, and most are highly

beneficial. 7. Worldwide, bats are the most important natural enemies of night-

flying insects! 8. A single brown bat can catch over 600 mosquitoes in just one

hour! 9. Tropical bats are key elements in rain forest ecosystems which rely on

them to pollinate flowers and disperse seeds for countless trees and shrubs. 10.

Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including

bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing

gasohol and antibiotics. 11. More than 50% of American bat species are in

severe decline or already listed as endangered. Losses are occurring at

alarming rates worldwide. 12. All mammals can contract rabies; however, even

the less than half of one percent of bats that do, normally bite only in self-

defense and pose little threat to people who do not handle them. 13. An

anticoagulant from Vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart

patients. 14. Contrary to popular misconception, bats are not blind, do not

become entangled in human hair, and seldom transmit disease to other animals or

humans.

Well, enough with the facts. I think that should get you ready for the

rest of my essay.

Austin, Texas Congress Ave. Bridge

A Bit Of History.......

When Engineers reconstructed downtown Austin's Congress Bridge in 1980,

they had no idea that the new crevices beneath the bridge would make an ideal

bat roost. Although bats had lived in Austin for years, it was headline news

when they suddenly began moving by the thousands under the bridge.

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