WHAT DOES A BAT LOOK LIKE?

The drawing below shows the main parts of a bat.

bat illustration by Aletha Reppel, Bat Conservation International Educator's Activity Book

A BAT'S BODY HELPS IT DO MANY THINGS

EARS: Bats have very good hearing.  They use it for finding food. They use it to find their babies when they come home. Their big ears help with echolocation. Their big funnel-shaped ears face forward. They collect and the sounds.The sound a bat makes bounces off things around it and comes back to its ears. Bats can detect a single human hair with echolocation! That is tiny.

NOSE:Some bats use their noses to find food. They use smell to find their roost mates. They use it to help find their young. Fruit eating bats can smell fruit a mile away.

EYES: Bats are not blind! People thought that because they hunt at night when it is hard to see. Many bats do not see color. Mega Bats, like Stella Luna, use their eyes and noses to find food. They can see color. Mega bats can see three times better than we do!

FEET: With their strong claws, bats are able to hang upside down in their roosts. Fishing bats also use their claws to catch the fish they eat.

HANDS AND WINGS: Bats fly by using their hands. Their fingers have skin between them. Bats spread their fingers apart. That is what makes the wings.

FUR ON THEIR BODY: One way we can tell that a bat is a mammal is because it has fur or hair on its body. The fur helps the bat hide in plain sight. They keep their fur clean by licking it. Cats lick their fur for the same readon. In the winter it helps keep the bat warm.

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