Bats

Question 1

What order do bats belong to?

Answer 1

Ciroptera

Only mammals capable of sustained flight

Question 2

Evolutionary advantages of flight in bats

Answer 2

Can forage widely and rapidly and can escape terrestrial predators

Can traverse fragmented agricultural or urbanised landscapes

Question 3

Evolutionary advantages of nocturnality in bats

Answer 3

Can access food with less competition

Conserve water and energy by being active in cooler part of day

Can evade diurnal predators

Question 4

How do bats differ from other small mammals

Answer 4

Bats differ to other small mammals in that they:

• Relatively long-lived
• Slow to reach sexual maturity
• Long gestation
• Small litter size
• Approx 1 birth per year

Question 5

Megachiroptera (bats)

Answer 5

Young are initially carried by mother then left in nurseries when mother is foraging until capable of independent flight

Diet: Nectivorous, Fruigivorous
E.g. Fruit bats, blossom bats

Short, simple gastro-intestinal tract

Reduced teeth

Short/absent tail

Roost in Large colonies

Question 6

Microchiroptera (bats)

Answer 6

Young are either in nurseries, or left alone in huge numbers each night from birth

Diet: Insectivorous, carnivorous

Majority of bats

Use echolocation to navigate and hunt

Colony size varies

Roost in sheltered areas

Conserve energy via- aggregation, torpor and hibernation

Question 7

Reproduction (bats)

Answer 7

Usually seasonal breeders

Long gestation

Many bats hibernate in winter

• Some species - male can store sperm for extended winter periods in the epididymis
• Some species females mater before hibernation, then store sperm in her tract with delayed ovulation and fertilisation in spring

Most have single large young

1 nipple in each axilla

Males are easy to distinguish - obvious penis

Testes can be either internally or externally housed