10 Reasons to Appreciate Bats

1. Bats help protect humans by eating pesky bugs like mosquitos!

The native NC species, little brown bats, are a significant contributor to eating pesky bugs like mosquitoes and can eat up to 4,500 insects a night.

2. They’re fluffy, flying mammals.

Bats are not flying mice or rats with wings. They are more closely related to primates and humans than rodents.

3. Bats do not want to attack you or fly into your hair.

Bats swoop under lights when it’s dark outside because insects are swarming the light. They are just trying to eat, not mess up your hair or attack you!

4. Bats are just as important as bees when it comes to pollination.

Many different species of bats are pollinators for specific flowers. Some bats are the only pollinators for certain plants since they bloom at night, like agave, which is used to make tequila.

5. Bat’s poop, guano, serves as a soil fertilizer and helps add nutrients to the ground in tropical rainforests.

Guano is a good source of nutrients for the plants in the rainforest since the soil layer lacks nutrients.

6. Vampire bats can hop on the ground like little, tiny bunnies.

Unlike other bats, they spend a lot of time on the ground. The little hop gets them into the air to take off quickly when needed. Vampire bats can take off right from the ground!

7. Only a tiny percentage of bats, 3 species in the world, drink blood.

Two of the three drink only bird blood. Only one species drinks mammal blood, the common vampire bat.

8. Baby bats are called pups!

There are quite a few other mammals whose babies are called pups! Here are a few: dogs, wolves, otters, seals, and foxes.

9. It is common for bats to alloparent, especially vampire bats.

This means the entire colony helps take care of the pups born in the colony. Other females within the colony will produce milk to help raise the pups. Other mothers sometimes help care for and feed twins if twins are born. With vampire bats, some bats will provide and bring blood back to the mother bats to help them out. The mothers usually have a very young pup hugging them tightly. It’s like your best friend having a baby, and you are her Uber Eats driver.

10. Bats do a pull-up each time they go to the bathroom.