Dictionary Definition
bat
Noun
1 nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs
modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for
echolocation by which they navigate [syn: chiropteran]
2 (baseball) a turn batting; "he was at bat when
it happened"; "he got 4 hits in 4 at-bats" [syn: at-bat]
3 a small racket with a long handle used for
playing squash [syn: squash
racket, squash
racquet]
4 a bat used in playing cricket [syn: cricket
bat]
5 a club used for hitting a ball in various
games
Verb
1 strike with, or as if with a baseball bat; "bat
the ball"
2 wink briefly; "bat one's eyelids" [syn:
flutter]
3 have a turn at bat; "Jones bats first, followed
by Martinez"
4 use a bat; "Who's batting?"
5 beat thoroughly in a competition or fight; "We
licked the other team on Sunday!" [syn: clobber, drub, thrash, lick] [also: batting, batted]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
, /bæt/, /b} An old woman.Extensive Definition
A bat is a mammal in the order
Chiroptera. Their most distinguishing feature is that their
forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals
in the world naturally capable of flight (though other mammals,
such as flying
squirrels, gliding flying
possums and colugos,
can glide for limited
distances). The word Chiroptera comes from the Greek
words cheir "hand" and pteron "wing," as the structure of the open
wing is very similar to an outspread human hand with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers
that also stretches between hand and body.
A measure of the success of
bats is their estimated total of about 1,100 species of bats worldwide,
accounting for about 20 percent of all mammal species. About 70
percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the
rest are fructivores, with a few species being carnivorous. Bats
are present throughout most of the world.
Bats perform a vital
ecological role by pollinating some flowers, and also have an
important role in seed dispersal; indeed, many tropical plants are
totally dependent on bats. This role explains environmental
concerns when a bat is introduced
in a new setting. Tenerife provides
a recent example with the introduction of the Egyptian
fruit bat.
Fossil bats
Since bats are terrestrial and light-boned, there are few fossilized remains. An Early Eocene bat, Onychonycteris finneyi, was found in the 52-million-year-old Green River Formation in Wyoming (US) in 2003. The new genus was placed in a new family when it was published in Nature, February 2008.. It was clearly a flier, but the well-articulated skeleton showed underdeveloped cochlea of the inner ear, which provide echolocation capabilities in all modern true bats, demonstrating at last that flight in bats was developed before echolocation. The team realized Onychonycteris finneyi was different when they noticed that the species lacked the ear and throat features present in all living, echolocating bats today, and even in other ancient species. The bats of 52,5 million years ago flew differently than the bats of today and looked vastly different too. Onychonycteris had claws on all five of its fingers, whereas modern bats have - at most - claws for only two digits on each hand. It also had longer hind legs, and shorter forearms, similar to those of climbing mammals that hang under branches (such as sloths or gibbons). This palm-sized animal had broad, short wings that suggest the it could not fly as fast or as far as those that evolved later. Instead of flapping its wings continuously while flying, it would likely have alternated flapping and gliding while in the air. These physical characteristics suggest that this species also did not fly as much as modern bats do; perhaps just flying to get from tree to tree, spending most of their waking day just climbing or hanging.Another early Eocene fossil
Icaronycteris
index, was unearthed in 1960.
Classification and evolution
Bats are mammals. Though sometimes called "flying rodents", "flying mice," or even mistaken for insects and birds, bats are not, in fact, any of these things. There are two traditional suborders of bats:- Megachiroptera (megabats)
- Microchiroptera (microbats/echolocating bats)
Despite the name, not all
megabats are larger than microbats. The major distinction between
the two suborders is based on other factors:
- Microbats use echolocation, whereas megabats do not (except for Rousettus and relatives).
- Microbats lack the claw at the second toe of the forelimb.
- The ears of microbats do not form a closed ring, but the edges are separated from each other at the base of the ear.
- Microbats lack underfur; they have only guard hairs or are naked.
Megabats eat fruit, nectar or pollen while microbats eat
insects, blood (small quantities of the
blood of animals), small mammals, and fish. While megabats have a
well-developed visual
cortex and show good visual
acuity, microbats rely on echolocation
for navigation and finding prey.
The phylogenetic relationships
of the different groups of bats have been the subject of much
debate. The traditional subdivision into Megachiroptera and
Microchiroptera reflects the predominant view that suggests that
these two groups of bats have evolved independently for a long
time, from a common
ancestor that was already capable of flight. This hypothesis
recognizes the marked differences between microbats and megabats,
while at the same time acknowledging the likelihood that flight has
evolved only once in mammals. In addition, the majority of
molecular biological evidence supports the point of view that bats
form a monophyletic group (e.g. ).
More recently, researchers
have proposed alternative views of chiropteran phylogeny (and
classification), but more research is required to assess the merits
of these proposals.
- Genetic evidence indicates that megabats should be placed within the four major lines of microbats, which originated during the early Eocene. This has resulted in a new classification, which includes two suborders: Yinpterochiroptera which includes the families Pteropodidae, Rhinolophidae, Megadermatidae, and Rhinopomatidae, and Yangochiroptera, including all other families of bats. Because these relationships combine echolocating and non-echolocating bats, it's unknown if the ancestor of bats possessed laryngeal echolocation and the bats of Pteropodiae subsequently lost it, or if this ability evolved twice.
- There is some morphological evidence that Megachiroptera evolved flight separately from Microchiroptera. When adaptations to flight are discounted in a cladistic analysis, the Megachiroptera are allied to primates by anatomical features that are not shared with Microchiroptera. For example, the brains of megabats show a number of advanced characteristics linking these animals to primates, which have been deemed unlikely to have arisen by parallel evolution. For details of the controversy surrounding this proposal, see Flying primates theory).
Little fossil evidence exists
about the evolution of
bats, since their small, delicate skeletons do not fossilize
well. However a Late
Cretaceous tooth from South America resembles that of an early
Microchiropteran bat. The oldest known definite bat fossils, such
as Icaronycteris,
Archaeonycteris,
Palaeochiropteryx
and Hassianycteris,
are from the early Eocene ( making it
even more sensitive, and allowing the bat to detect and collect
information about the air flowing over its wings. An additional
kind of receptor cell is found in the wing membrane of species that
use their wings to catch prey. This receptor cell is sensitive to
the stretching of the membrane.
Reproduction
Mother bats usually have only one offspring per year, and they are viviparous. A baby bat is referred to as a pup. Pups are usually left in the roost when they are not nursing. However, a newborn bat can cling to the fur of the mother and be transported, although they soon grow too large for this. It would be difficult for an adult bat to carry more than one young, but normally only one young is born. Bats often form nursery roosts, with many females giving birth in the same area, be it a cave, a tree hole, or a cavity in a building. Mother bats are able to find their young in huge colonies of millions of other pups. Pups have even been seen to feed on other mothers' milk if their mother is dry. Only the mother cares for the young, and there is no continuous partnership with male bats.The ability to fly is
congenital, but at birth the wings are too small to fly. Young
microbats become
independent at the age of 6 to 8 weeks, megabats not until they are four
months old. At the age of two years, bats are sexually
mature.
A single bat can live over 20
years, but the bat population growth is limited by the slow
birth
rate.
Behavior
Most microbats are active at night or at twilight.Many bats migrate,
while others pass into torpor in cold weather but rouse
themselves and feed when warm spells permit insect activity. Yet
others retreat to caves for winter and hibernate for six months.
Bats rarely fly in rain- the rain interferes with their echo
location, and they are unable to locate their food.
The social structure of bats
varies, with some bats leading a solitary life and others living in
caves colonized by more than a million bats. The fission-fusion
social structure is seen among several species of bats.
"Fusion" refers to the grouping of large numbers of bats in one
roosting area and "fission" is the breaking apart and mixing of
subgroups, with individual bats switching roosts with others and
often ending up in different trees and with different
roostmates.
Studies also show that bats
make all kinds of sounds to communicate with others. Scientists in
the field have listened to bats and have been able to identify some
sounds with some behaviour bats will make right after the sounds
are made.
70% of bat species are
insectivorous, locating their prey by means of sonar. Of the
remainder, most feed on fruits and their juices. Only
three species sustain themselves with blood, some preying on vertebrates: these are the
leaf-nosed
bats (Phyllostomidae) of Central
America and South
America, and the two bulldog bat
(Noctilionidae) species, which feed on fish. At least two species of bat
are known to feed on other bats: the Spectral
Bat, also called the American False Vampire bat, and the
Ghost
Bat of Australia. One
species, the Greater
Noctule bat, is believed to catch and eat small birds in the air.
As vectors for pathogens
Bats are natural reservoirs or vectors for a large number of zoonotic pathogens including rabies, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Henipavirus (ie. Nipah virus and Hendra virus) and possibly ebola virus. Their high mobility, broad distribution, and social behaviour (communal roosting, fission-fusion social structure) make bats favourable hosts and vectors of disease. Many species also appear to have a high tolerance for harbouring pathogens and often do not develop disease while infected.Only 0.5% of bats carry
rabies. However, of the very few cases of rabies reported in the United
States every year, most are caused by bat bites.
Although most bats do not have rabies, those that do may be clumsy,
disoriented, and unable to fly, which makes it more likely that
they will come into contact with humans. Although one should not
have an unreasonable fear of
bats, one should avoid handling them or having them in one's
living space, as with any wild animal. If a bat is found in living
quarters near a child, mentally handicapped person, intoxicated
person, sleeping person, or pet, the person or pet should receive
immediate medical attention for rabies. Bats have very small teeth
and can bite a sleeping person without necessarily being felt.
There is evidence that it is possible for the bat rabies virus to
infect victims purely through airborne transmission, without direct
physical contact of the victim with the bat itself.
If a bat is found in a house
and the possibility of exposure cannot be ruled out, the bat should
be sequestered and an animal control officer called immediately, so
that the bat can be analysed. This also applies if the bat is found
dead. If it is certain that nobody has been exposed to the bat, it
should be removed from the house. The best way to do this is to
close all the doors and windows to the room except one to the
outside. The bat should soon leave.
Due to the risk of rabies and
also due to health problems related to their faecal droppings
(guano), bats should be
excluded from inhabited parts of houses. The Center for Disease Control's
website on bats and rabies provides full detailed information
on all aspects of bat management, including how to capture a bat,
what to do in case of exposure, and how to bat-proof a house
humanely. In certain countries, such as the United
Kingdom, it is illegal to handle bats without a
license.
Where rabies is not endemic,
as throughout most of Western
Europe, small bats can be considered harmless. Larger bats can
give a nasty bite. They should be treated with the respect due to
any wild animal.
Cultural aspects
The bat is sacred in Tonga and West Africa and is often considered the physical manifestation of a separable soul . Bats are closely associated with vampires, who are said to be able to shapeshift into bats, fog, or wolves. Bats are also a symbol of ghosts, death, and disease. Among some Native Americans, such as the Creek, Cherokee and Apache, the bat is a trickster spirit. Chinese lore claims the bat is a symbol of longevity and happiness, and is similarly lucky in Poland and geographical Macedonia and among the Kwakiutl and Arabs. The bat is also a heraldic animal of the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia.Pre-Columbian
cultures associated animals with gods and often displayed them in
art. The Moche people depicted
bats in their ceramics.
In Western
Culture, the bat is often a symbol of the night and its
foreboding nature. The bat is a primary animal associated with
fictional characters of the night, both villains like Dracula and
heroes like Batman. The
association of the fear of the night with the animal was treated as
a literary challenge by Kenneth
Oppel, who created a best selling series of novels, beginning
with Silverwing,
which feature bats as the central heroic figures much as
anthropomorphized rabbits
were the central figures to the classic novel Watership
Down.
An old wives'
tale has it that bats will entangle themselves in people's
hair. One likely source of this belief is that insect-eating bats
seeking prey may dive erratically toward people, who attract
mosquitoes and gnats, leading the squeamish to
believe that the bats are trying to get in their hair.
In the United
Kingdom all bats are protected under the
Wildlife and Countryside Acts, and even disturbing a bat or its
roost can be punished with a heavy fine.
In Sarawak, Malaysia bats are
protected species under the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 (see
Malaysian
Wildlife Law). The large Naked bat (see Mammals
of Borneo) and Greater Nectar bat are consumed by the local
communities.
Bats can be a tourist
attraction. The Congress
Avenue bridge in Austin,
Texas is the
summer home to North
America's largest urban bat colony, an estimated 1,500,000
Mexican
free-tailed bats, which eat an estimated 10,000 to 30,000
pounds of insects each night. An estimated 100,000 tourists per
year visit the bridge at twilight to watch the bats leave the
roost.
Artificial roosts
Many people put up bat houses to attract bats just like many people put up birdhouses to attract birds. Reasons for this vary, but mostly center around the fact that bats are the primary nocturnal insectivores in most if not all ecologies. Bat houses can be made from scratch, made from kits, or bought ready made. Plans for bat houses exist on many web sites, as well as guidelines for designing a bat house. Some conservation societies are giving away free bat houses to bat enthusiasts worldwide.A bat house constructed in
1991 at the University
of Florida campus next to Lake Alice in Gainesville
has a population of over 100,000 free-tailed bats.
In Britain,
pillboxes dating from World War II have been converted to make
roosts for bats. Pillboxes that are well dug-in and thick walled
are naturally damp and provide a stable thermal environment that is
required by bats that would otherwise hibernate in caves. With a
few minor modifications, suitable pillboxes can be converted to
artificial caves for bats.
See also
References
- Greenhall, Arthur H. 1961. Bats in Agriculture. A Ministry of Agriculture Publication. Trinidad and Tobago.
- Nowak, Ronald M. 1994. " Walker's BATS of the World". The John Hopikins University Press, Baltimore and London.
- John D. Pettigrew's summary on Flying Primate Hypothesis
- Altringham, J.D. 1998. Bats: Biology and Behaviour. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Dobat, K.; Holle, T.P. 1985. Blüten und Fledermäuse: Bestäubung durch Fledermäuse und Flughunde (Chiropterophilie). Frankfurt am Main: W. Kramer & Co. Druckerei.
- Fenton, M.B. 1985. Communication in the Chiroptera. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Findley, J.S. 1995. Bats: a Community Perspective. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
- Fleming, T.H. 1988. The Short-Tailed Fruit Bat: a Study in Plant-Animal Interactions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Kunz, T.H. 1982. Ecology of Bats. New York: Plenum Press.
- Kunz, T.H.; Racey, P.A. 1999. Bat Biology and Conservation. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
- Kunz, T.H.; Fenton, M.B. 2003. Bat Ecology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Neuweiler, G. 1993. Biologie der Fledermäuse. Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag.
- Nowak, R.M. 1994. Walker's Bats of the World. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Richarz, K. & Limbruner, A. 1993. The World of Bats. Neptune City: TFH Publications.
- Twilton, B. 1999. My Life as The Bat. Liverpool Hope University press
External links
sisterlinks bat- Texas Parks and Wildlife Bat Page
- University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Bats and Tarsier
- Tree of Life
- Bat evolution linked to warming
- Microbat Vision
- Information On Bats & Trees in The UK
- Bats of Australia
- Article - Safely and Humanely Deal with Bat in House
bat in Old English (ca.
450-1100): Hreaðemūs
bat in Arabic:
خفاش
bat in Aragonese:
Chiroptera
bat in Asturian:
Esperteyu
bat in Guarani:
Mbopi
bat in Aymara:
Chiñi
bat in Min Nan:
Bi̍t-pô
bat in Bulgarian:
Прилепи
bat in Catalan:
Ratapinyada
bat in Czech:
Letouni
bat in Corsican: Topu
pinnutu
bat in Welsh:
Ystlum
bat in Danish:
Flagermus
bat in German:
Fledertiere
bat in Spanish:
Chiroptera
bat in Esperanto:
Kiropteroj
bat in Persian:
خفاش
bat in Faroese:
Flogmýs
bat in French:
Chiroptera
bat in Hakka Chinese:
Phi̍t-phò-è
bat in Korean:
박쥐
bat in Croatian:
Šišmiši
bat in Ido:
Vespertilio
bat in Indonesian:
Kelelawar
bat in Interlingua
(International Auxiliary Language Association):
Vespertilion
bat in Icelandic:
Leðurblaka
bat in Italian:
Chiroptera
bat in Hebrew:
עטלפים
bat in Pampanga:
Talibatab
bat in Georgian:
ღამურები
bat in Latin:
Chiroptera
bat in Latvian:
Sikspārņi
bat in Lithuanian:
Šikšnosparniai
bat in Limburgan:
Fleermuis
bat in Hungarian:
Denevérek
bat in Malayalam:
വവ്വാല്
bat in Malay (macrolanguage):
Kelawar
nah:Tzinācantli
bat in Dutch:
Vleermuizen
bat in Japanese:
コウモリ
bat in Norwegian:
Flaggermus
bat in Norwegian Nynorsk:
Flaggermus
bat in Narom:
Caûque-souothis
bat in Novial:
Chiroptera
bat in Occitan (post 1500):
Chiroptera
bat in Polish:
Nietoperze
bat in Portuguese:
Morcego
bat in Romanian:
Chiroptere
bat in Quechua:
Masu
bat in Russian:
Рукокрылые
bat in Sicilian: Taddarita
(pipistrellu)
bat in Simple English:
Bat
bat in Slovak:
Netopiere
bat in Slovenian:
Netopirji
bat in Serbian: Слепи
мишеви
bat in Serbo-Croatian:
Šišmiš
bat in Sundanese:
Kalong
bat in Finnish:
Lepakot
bat in Swedish:
Fladdermöss
bat in Tagalog:
Paniki
bat in Tamil:
வௌவால்
bat in Telugu:
గబ్బిలం
bat in Thai:
ค้างคาว
bat in Turkish:
Yarasa
bat in Ukrainian:
Кажан
bat in Urdu:
چمگادڑ
bat in Contenese:
蝙蝠
bat in Chinese:
蝙蝠
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Angora goat, Arctic fox,
Belgian hare, Caffre cat, Indian buffalo, Kodiak bear, Virginia
deer, aardvark,
aardwolf, agate, alpaca, anteater, antelope, antelope chipmunk,
aoudad, apar, armadillo, ass, aurochs, bacchanal, bacchanalia, bacchanalian, badger, bag, ball, bandicoot, bang, baseball bat, bash, bassarisk, baton, battledore, bauble, bear, beating, beaver, beldam, belt, bender, bettong, biddy, biff, billy club, binge, binturong, bison, black bear, black buck,
black cat, black fox, black sheep, blind man, blink, blocks, blow, bludgeon, blue fox, bobcat, bonk, booze, bop, bout, brown bear, brush deer, brush
wolf, buffalo, buffalo
wolf, bum, burro, burro deer, bust, cachalot, camel, camelopard, capybara, carabao, caribou, carousal, carouse, carpincho, cat, cat-a-mountain, catamount, cattalo, cavy, celebration, celerity, chamois, checkerboard, cheetah, chessboard, chevrotain, chinchilla, chipmunk, chop, cinnamon bear, clap, clip, clobber, clout, club, clump, cockhorse, coldcock, compotation, coon, coon cat, cotton mouse,
cotton rat, cougar,
cow, coyote, coypu, crack, cricket bat, crone, cue, cut, dash, deal, deal a blow, debauch, deck, deer, deer tiger, dig, dingo, dint, dog, doll, doll carriage, donkey, dormouse, drab, drift, drinking bout, dromedary, drub, drubbing, drumming, drunk, drunken carousal, echidna, eland, elephant, elk, ermine, escapade, eyra, fallow deer, ferret, fetch, fetch a blow, field mouse,
fisher, fitch, fling, flying phalanger, foumart, fox, fox squirrel, fusillade, gad, gait, gallivant, gazelle, gemsbok, genet, gewgaw, gimcrack, giraffe, glutton, gnu, gnu goat, goat, goat antelope, golf club,
gopher, grizzly bear,
ground squirrel, groundhog, guanaco, guinea pig, guzzle, hamster, hare, harnessed antelope, hartebeest, hedgehog, hippopotamus, hit, hit a clip, hobbyhorse, hog, horse, hyena, hyrax, ibex, jab, jack-in-the-box, jackal, jackass, jackrabbit, jacks, jackstones, jackstraws, jag, jaguar, jaguarundi, jerboa, jerboa kangaroo, kaama, kangaroo, kangaroo mouse,
kangaroo rat, karakul,
kickshaw, kinkajou, kit fox, knickknack, knobkerrie, knock, knock cold, knock down,
knock out, koala, lapin, lark, lemming, leopard, leopard cat, lick, lion, llama, lynx, mace, mammoth, mara, marble, marionette, marmot, marten, mastodon, meander, meerkat, mig, mink, mole, mongoose, mooch, moose, mouflon, mountain goat, mountain
lion, mountain sheep, mouse, mule, mule deer, muntjac, musk deer, musk hog,
musk-ox, muskrat,
musquash, nictitate, nilgai, nutria, ocelot, okapi, onager, oont, opossum, orgy, otter, ounce, ox, pace, pack rat, painter, panda, pangolin, panther, paper doll, paste, peccary, pelt, peludo, phalanger, pick-up sticks,
pig, pine mouse, pinwheel, platypus, plaything, ploy, plunk, pocket gopher, pocket
mouse, pocket rat, poke,
polar bear, polar fox, polecat, porcupine, possum, potation, pouched rat, pound, poyou, prairie dog, prairie wolf,
pronghorn, pub-crawl,
puma, punch, puppet, quickness, rabbit, raccoon, racket, rag doll, ramble, randan, randy, rap, rapidity, rat, red deer, red squirrel,
reindeer, revel, rhinoceros, roam, rocking horse, roe, roe deer, roebuck, rove, sable, serval, sheep, shillelagh, shrew, shrew mole, sika, silver fox, skunk, slam, slog, sloth, slug, smack, smash, smite, snap, snowshoe rabbit, soak, sock, sport, spree, springbok, squirrel, steelie, stoat, strike, strike at, stroke, suslik, swamp rabbit, swat, swiftness, swine, swing, swipe, symposium, takin, tamandua, tamarin, tapir, tarpan, tatou, tatou peba, tatouay, tattoo, taw, tear, teetotum, the blind, the
sightless, the unseeing, thump, thwack, tiger, tiger cat, timber wolf,
toot, top, toy, toy soldier, traipse, tree shrew, trinket, trot, truncheon, twinkle, urus, velocity, vole, wallaby, wallop, war club, warthog, wassail, water buffalo, waterbuck, weasel, whack, wham, wharf rat, whim-wham,
whistler, white fox,
whop, wild ass, wild boar,
wild goat, wild ox, wildcat, wildebeest, wingding, witch, wolf, wolverine, wombat, wood rat, woodchuck, woolly mammoth,
yak, yerk, zebra, zebu, zoril