Fly by Night - 5 Fun Facts about Bats!

We've had a fantastic response to our Fly by Night - Bat and Moth Night on Saturday 5th September and we're now fully booked! Thank you to everybody who has enquired and we look forward to welcoming those of you with a space on Saturday.

After our recent blog Fly by Night - 5 Fun Facts about Moths, we didn't want to leave our flying furry friends out, so here are 5 facts about bats...

1. There are around 1100 species of bat in the world, the only flying mammal. Some of them can fly at speeds of up to 60mph and some can live to 30 years old!

2. The largest bat in the world is the flying fox. Found in Indonesia, they have a wingspan of 5-6 feet! In contrast, the smallest is the bumble bee bat, which resides in Thailand. It is just 29-33mm and weighs in at a teeny weeny 2 grams. The smallest you'll find in the UK is the pipistrelle, it's appetite however, does not match it's size...

3. The pipistrelle is a greedy little beast, it can eat up to 3000 insects in just one night!

Pipistrelle Bat (Chris Shields - www.rspb-images.com)

4. All UK bats use echolocation to find their way and their prey in the dark. This involves sending out high frequency calls and analysing the sound that bounces off objects around them. Clever, huh?!

5. Vampire bats are named after the bloodthirsty creatures in mythology, such as Bram Stoker's Dracula. However their saliva actually contains an anti-coagulant (conveniently called draculin) which may be able to help combat the causes of stroke and heart disease. Yay bats!

(Robin Boutell - www.rspb-images.com)

We're sorry if you didn't manage to grab a space on our event this Saturday but make sure you look out for the winged lovelies at home too. They're often spotted flying battily about in gardens nationwide!

If you've seen any in your own garden we'd love to hear about it on our Facebook page and Twitter!

Jenny (Connecting People and Nature Intern)