Bats !! They make you crazy at times. When I stayed in my Lucknow home, which was lying abandoned for the last 20 years, I never knew that a baby bats will really help me out in doing a warm up exercise before I take a nice nap. They really made me "A BATMAN !" after all those workouts in catching them up.Ummmm..We both were terrified of each other's presence and it was literally their home for the past 20 years which we actually intended to invade.
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I saw the first flying bat in the year 2005 and their wing span was as much as 1 meter. It happened when I was in Xamvier's hostel. Crows were going back home in the evening and these BATS were gliding like the crows does, without flapping their wings. They were also particulary visible, REALLY BIG !!,"COVERED WITH THEIR OWN BROWN BLANKET" & hanging upside down, from the fig trees near Deonar Bus Stop and Gandhi Nagar Bus Stop. Let me tell you, that there are very particular places in Mumbai from where you would hear their shrieking sound and a healthy outfit. :).
Most recently, they helped me in taking my General Intelligence test in the HRD department of Godrej & Boyce (their Shrieks) ! They have one of the best patronage provided by the lush green trees in the Godrej Headquarters. These trees are fruit bearing indeed, at least visually, thanks to them !!
When we talk about BATS, we do loathe it. The perception, adding to the cacophonous noise that they make while hanging upside down, makes us hate this creature. They also make a significant contribution in our ecosystem. Let us attempt to know how they are unique.
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrell,gliding possums, and colugs, glide rather than fly, and can only glide for a short distance. Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread-out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane orpatagium.
Bats represent about twenty percent of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders: the less specialized and largely fruit-eating megachiroptera, or flying foxes, and the more highly specialized and echolocating microchiroptera. About seventy percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species such as the Fish Eating Bat, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire bats being the only parasitic mammalian species. Bats are present throughout most of the world, performing vital ecological roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Many tropical plant species depend entirely on bats for the distribution of their seeds. Bats are important in eating insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides.
The smallest bat is the Kitti's Hog Nosed Bat, measuring 29–34 mm (1.14–1.34 in) in length, 15 cm (5.91 in) across the wings and 2–2.6 g (0.07–0.09 oz) in mass. It is also arguably the smallest extant species of mammal, with the Etruscan Shrew being the other contender. The largest species of bat is the "Giant Golden Crowned Flying Fox", which is 336–343 mm (13.23–13.50 in) long, has a wingspan of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and weighs approximately 1.1–1.2 kg (2–3 lb).
More Information,
Courtesy- Wikipedia
Regards,
Dilkash
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