Bat with species-devastating fungus discovered in Colorado
A bat infected with a fungus that has killed millions of bats across the country was found in Longmont last month.
A bat infected with a fungus that has killed millions of bats across the country was found in Longmont last month.
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2024
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Flying foxes, or fruit bats, are familiar to many Australians. So it may come as a surprise to learn two of the four mainland species, both gray-headed and spectacled flying foxes, are threatened with extinction.
Plants & Animals
Mar 24, 2024
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A new study published in Conservation Biology by the University of Sussex shows how researchers are using AI technology and social media to help identify global threats to wildlife.
Plants & Animals
Mar 13, 2024
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Unlike most animals that rely on visual senses, bats navigate and locate prey or obstacles through echolocation. By emitting sounds and comparing them to the reflected echoes, bats can "visualize" movement in the environment. ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 28, 2024
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You have probably seen bats flying at dusk. They suddenly appear on summer evenings, when other flying creatures have settled down for the night. However, they are not a common sight in Norway, because there aren't that many ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 21, 2024
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Bats carry some of the deadliest zoonotic diseases that can infect both humans and animals, such as Ebola and COVID-19. In a recently-published article in the journal Cell Genomics, a Texas A&M research team has revealed ...
Evolution
Feb 20, 2024
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Most bats patrol the night sky in search of insects. New World leaf-nosed bats take a different approach. Among the more than 200 species of leaf-nosed bats, there are those that hunt insects; drink nectar; eat fruit; munch ...
Evolution
Feb 20, 2024
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A Polish pensioner has been dubbed "Bat-mum" for taking care of ailing bats from her ninth-floor flat as the nocturnal mammals increasingly struggle with the effects of climate change.
Ecology
Feb 8, 2024
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A silent ballet takes place above our heads at night as Britain's bat populations leave their roosts to forage for food. Although their initial movement away from roosts is fairly well understood, until recently little was ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 6, 2024
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Flying foxes. Megabats. Fruit bats. Whatever name you choose, these fox-faced creatures are remarkable. Our four species help pollinate eucalyptus trees in eastern Australia, spread the seeds of rainforest trees, and make ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 26, 2024
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See article
Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera (pronounced /kaɪˈrɒptərə/). The forelimbs of bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of flight (opposed to other mammals, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, that glide only for a distance). Bats do not flap arms like birds, instead they flap spread out hands where their fingers are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium. Chiroptera comes from two Greek words cheir (χειρ) "hand" and pteron (πτερον) "wing."
There is an estimated total of about 1,100 species worldwide, which is about 20 percent of all classified mammal species. About 70 percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, with a few species being carnivorous. Bats are present throughout most of the world and perform a vital ecological role by pollinating flowers, and eat various plants to dispere their seeds. Many tropical plants depend for their seeds to be distributed entirely by bats.
Bats range in size from Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat measuring 29–33 mm (1.14–1.30 in) in length and 2 g (0.07 oz) in mass, to the Giant golden-crowned flying fox which has a wing span of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and weighs approximately 1.2 kg (3 lb).
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA