Bats are mammals.
A long time ago, people used to think bats were birds without
feathers. But now we know that there is no such thing as a featherless bird. We know
that bats are mammals, just like people. Some of the things that tell us bats are mammals
are that bats are warm blooded, bats nurse their babies with milk, and bats have fur. But
bats are very special mammals. They are the only mammals that can fly (without an
airplane!) Flying squirrels are mammals too, but they don't really fly. They jump from
high in a tree glide through the air like a kite. Bats flap their wings and fly like a bird.
Bat wings are made of two thin layers of skin stretched over the bat's arm and fingers.
Bats have a thumb and four fingers, just like people. The bat's fingers are very long
compared to its body. If we had fingers like a bat, they would be longer than our legs!
Bat wings go all the way down the side of the bat's body and partway down its
legs. When bats fly, they don't just flap up and down. If you watch them closely, it
almost looks like they're pulling themselves through the air -- the movement is similar to
the butterfly stroke in swimming. Bats use their wings for more than just flying. They
can wrap their wings around insects or fruit to hold it while eating.
Bats feed at night. They are nocturnal. They spend the day sleeping in caves or in tree
tops. The place where a bat sleeps is called its roost. Bats hang upside down from their
roosts when they sleep. Although some bats roost in groups of only one or two, for the
most part bats are very sociable animals. They usually sleep together in huge groups.
Some caves may be home to thousands of bats. The largest bat colony in the world is in
Bracken Cave, Texas. During the summer, this cave is home to as many as 20 million
Mexican free-tailed bats. That's a lot of bats!
