BAT FACTS

There is not one documented case of bats getting caught in a person’s hair!

Bats are not blind! They see very well with their
eyes, as well as being able to use sound to draw mental pictures of what is in front of them.

All bats in
Canada are insectivorous, consuming up to 100% of their body weight each night in insects. That works out to about 500 mosquito sized insects per hour!

It is estimated that 40% of bats in Canada and the U.S. are threatened or endangered with extinction.

Bats are the only mammal capable of sustained
flight.

Bats are virtually unchanged in the past 50 million years.

Almost 25% of all mammals on the planet are bats.

The
Little brown bat, is the most common in Canada, and lives up to 33 years, making them the longest living mammal for their size in the world!

A colony of 150
Big brown bats could easily consume 38,000 cucumber beetles, 16,000 May and June bugs, 19,000 Stinkbugs and 50,000 Leafhoppers in one summer! Those cucumber beetles would have produced 18 million corn rootworms, which would have destroyed 10 to 13% of the total corn produced.

The smallest bat in the world is the size of a bumblebee. The largest bat has a wingspan of 6 feet!

Bats are important to the environment because they
eat insects, pollinate plants, and distribute plant seeds.

Bats fly with their
hands! The bat’s wing is really an arm, forearm, fingers and thumb.

Many bats spend the winter hibernating.

By hanging upside down by their
toes, bats can utilize spaces many other animals cannot. Also, hanging upside down is an easy position from which to take flight rapidly.