Fun Bat Facts For Kids

It is a fact that bats are the only mammals that can fly. They live in tropical rainforests or subtropical forests, tunnels, and caves.

Few bats hibernate in caves through the cold winter months.

More than half of the bat species are located in the United States, and the number of bats is declining.

The most common bats seen in the U.S. have a length of 3.5 in (9 cm), with about 0.01-0.02 lb (0.25–0.42 oz) of weight, and a wingspan of approximately 10 in (25.4 cm).

Kitti's hog nosed bats, the smallest bat species, weigh only 0.004 (0.07 oz) while the largest bat in the world, the giant golden-crowned flying fox, weighs 2.8 lb (45.8 oz), is 11 in (27.9 cm) long, and has a wingspan of about 62 in (5.5 ft).

Mexican free-tailed bats are found in Brazil. They prey on moths. A female Mexican free-tailed bat can find her baby by their sounds and scent in a crowded roost.

They migrate to the south before the winter season arrives. Mexican free-tailed bats are capable of changing direction instantly while in flight. Flying foxes are found in Asia, Australia, Africa, and the assorted Pacific islands.

There are upwards of 60 species of flying foxes in the world. The weight of a giant golden-crowned flying fox is 2.8 lb (45.8 ox). This particular species lacks the ability of echolocation.

Fruit bats are one of the bat species that are herbivorous. They eat nectar, pollen, leaves, and stems in addition to fruits.

Fruit bats spend their life in warm climates where fruit grows most of the year. A fruit bat has large eyes, which gives them the best eyesight among any bat. California leaf-nosed bats are large-eared bats, and the ears measure up to 0.9 in (2.5 cm) in length.

California leaf-nosed bats prey on grasshoppers, beetles, moths, and crickets. These bats spend their daytime in caves or tunnels. California leaf-nosed bats live in the caves of Joshua Tree National Park.

The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat are one of the insectivorous bats that are found in Eurasia. Their conservation status is Least Concern.

Bracken cave is the warm weather home to the largest bat colony in the world. Bracken cave is known as 'bat heaven'.

Austin, Texas owns the cave and 1,521 acres of undeveloped land around it. Texas-based Bat Conservation International restores the land to protect an abundant variety of wildlife. In 1992, the Marbach family sold the initial 697 acres to Bat Conservation International.

The bracken cave is located in southern Comal County, Texas. As a matter of fact, bracken bat cave is the home of around twenty million Mexican free-tailed bats.

You should check our articles on leopard seal or fennec fox if you enjoyed reading this article.

Bat Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a bat?

Bats are a flying mammal type of animal.

What class of animal does a bat belong to?

Bats belong to the mammal class of animals.

How many bats are there in the world?

There are a total of 1,400 species of bats in the world.

Where does a bat live?

Bats are found in caves, tropical rainforests, or subtropical forests.

What is a bat's habitat?

Bats pick an assortment of diurnal perches, although the perch necessities of bats varies across the subspecies. Though they are similar when it comes to light, temperature, and mugginess.

Every species favors a specific sort of perch, however, this changes with sex, season, and reproductive activity. Sometimes bats are solitary, and at times the grown-up female only perches with its most recent offspring.

Who do bats live with?

Bat lives in groups, and the group of bats is called a colony.

How long does a bat live?

Most bats are capable of living close to 20 years in the wild, but according to research by scientists, six species live more than 30 years.

How do they reproduce?

Bats are the slowest mammal in the process of reproduction. Female and male bats mate in winter but give birth in the spring. Many female bats store male bats sperm until spring, and others keep the fertilized egg from growing until then. Females need more food than male bats in order to feed their babies as well as themselves.

What is their conservation status?

Regarding the conservation status of bats, some species are close to Endangered. The reasons behind bats becoming Endangered are habitat loss, destruction of roosts, hunting, and disturbances during their hibernation process.

Bat Fun Facts

What do bats look like?

Bat wings are similar in appearance to the lower edges of old-fashioned umbrellas. Their wings are leathery, and they have rubbery skin, which is hairless. They come in varied colors, including black, brown, red, tan, and gray. Bats have big ears like rodents, fur-covered torsos, and short snouts.

How cute are they?

Bats are fairly cute. A cute bat has a furry appearance with a small snout and small eyes, making them look very innocent and cuddly. That is until you look into the eyes of one that is nesting in a pitch-black cave.

How do they communicate?

Bats communicate by chirping, screeching, and singing. They have high-frequency chirps. They can emit and hear a frequency of over 100,000 sound waves per second.

How big is a bat?

Little brown bats are 3 in (7 cm) long, 0.02 lb (10 g) in weight with 10 in (25 cm) of wingspan.

Mexican free-tailed bats are 3.5 in (8 cm) in length, 11 in (27 cm) wingspan, and 0.02 lb (10 g) in weight.

The most common bats which reside in the United States have a length of 2-3 in (5-7 cm), with about 0.02 lb (10 g) weight, and a 10 in (25 cm) wingspan.

The smallest bat in the world is known as Kitti's hog-nosed bat and weighs only 0.004 lb (2 g), and the largest bat, the giant golden-crowned flying fox, weighs 2.8 lb (1,300 g), are 11 in (27 cm) long, and have a wingspan of about 66 in (5.5 ft).

How fast can a bat move?

Mexican free-tailed bats are the fatest bat species and can fly at a speed of 99 mph (160 kmph). The flight speed of cave bats and other species of bat is recorded to be around 10 mph (16 kmph).

How much does a bat weigh?

A bat weighs up to 0.01-0.02 lb (0.25–0.42 oz).

What are the male and female names of the species?

Both the male and female are referred to as Chiroptera or just bats.

What would you call a baby bat?

Baby bats are called pups.

What do they eat?

The larger species of bats eat insects, nectar, and fruits. These bats can eat between 2,000 and 3,000 insects a night. Bats use echolocation. They locate their food and hunt at night.

Are they dangerous?

Bats are neither aggressive nor dangerous. They keep to themselves within their colonies, and as long as humans do not interfere with them, they do not attempt to harm.

Many bats are small in size. They use their small teeth and jaws to eat insects, while the giant bat, hoary bats, and big brown bats have large teeth that are capable of causing serious injuries like puncturing the skin.

Would they make a good pet?

Bats, in general, are good pets. If they are well cared for and are given an appropriate place to rest, you'll have a great time with these cute little creatures. But beware of your local laws before considering to keep them as pets.

Did you know...

Hammerhead bats, also known as the hammer-headed fruit bat, are found in West and Central Africa. They are the largest bat found in the African continent. The variety of body designs on the male and female bats make them the most explicitly dimorphic bat species on the planet.

Bats are creatures with pointy teeth, but they don't bite humans unnecessarily. As long as humans do not disturb their peace, they won't become aggravated.

In fact, they tend to avoid any contact with humans. A fascinating fact about bats is that they excrete sparkles, or at least it looks like they do as they consume lots of insects with shiny exteriors so their feces tends to have shiny particles.

Bats can be kept as pets as it has been observed that with good care, bats can be good pets.

But, bats are not an animal that qualifies to be kept as a pet under most creature laws. It has been a misconception that bats bite people without any reason, also including the myth that they suck blood.

Flying foxes colonies can contain up to 200,000 bats. A huge number of bat species found in the U.S. are insectivorous.

Three species are flower-eating bats. Vespertilionidae, Molossidae, Mormoopidae, and Phyllostomidae belong to the North American bat families. The bats in the U.S are becoming infected with a fatal disease called white-nose syndrome.

This infection affects the animal's fat reserves, preventing the bat from surviving winter hibernation, and there is no cure developed for the white-nose syndrome as of yet. White-nose syndrome disease spread to 33 states in the U.S. and 7 Canadian provinces in 2018.

Bats communicate by chirping, screeching, and singing. They have high-frequency chirps. It is an amazing fact that they can emit and hear the frequency of over 100,000 sound waves per second.

Most bats' lifespan is less than 20 years in the wild, but according to research by scientists, six species lifespan is more than 30 years. The conservation status of bats is Endangered.

The main reasons behind bats becoming Endangered is habitat loss, destruction of roosts, hunting, and disturbances during their hibernation process. Since COVID-19, bat conservation has been even more critical as it impacts the lives of people worldwide. About 200 species are now threatened with Extinction.

Do bats bite people?

Yes, bats can bite people, but only if they are disturbed. They are known to be peaceful animals that feed on insects, fruit, small animals, and the blood from mammals. They try to stay away from areas which have high human activities. The myth that bats resort to sucking human blood is completely false.

How to draw a bat?

Draw a circle for the head of the bat. Draw an oval for its body. Draw two triangles above its head to create its ears.

Continue to draw its facial features such as a small snout including two pointy teeth, a curved line for its mouth, two tiny round eyes, and a black nose. To draw its wings, consider a stretched-out letter 'M' except place the Bat's body in the middle.

Continue to add details to its wings by adding lines from the middle of each wing. Join the lines from the ends of the wings to make it look webbed. Color it in to finish your cute-looking bat.

How to build a bat house?

Measure first and then and cut pressed wood into three pieces. Roughen within the back-board and base region by cutting flat sections with a sharp item. Ensure that the grooves are profound.

The tough plastic cross-section for tractions can be filled in for roughening to give traction to the bats. Append one piece to the back-board subsequent to staining the inside. Apply two layers of dull, water-based polish to inside surfaces. Don't use paint as this will make the grooves unusable.

Now cut the furring strip. Connect these strips to the back, caulking first. Start with a piece at the top.

Connect the front to the furring strips, the top piece should come first. Leave vent space among the top and base front pieces. Caulk around all external joints to additional seal the perching chamber. Connect a board to the top as a rooftop.

Paint or stain the outside multiple times. Cover the rooftop with shingles or electrified metal. Introduce bats as indicated by directions recommended by professionals.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other mammals including vampire bat, or Mexican free-tailed bat.

You can even occupy yourself at home by drawing one of our bat anatomy coloring pages.