Animal of the Month

1. There are 17 species of bats in the UK, including the grey long-eared, the whiskered, the greater horseshoe and – the most widespread – the common pipistrelle.


2. Bats are mammals, which means they are warm-blooded like us. It also means females give birth to babies rather than laying eggs and mothers produce milk for their babies.


3. Are you as blind as a bat? Then you must have pretty good vision. Despite what many people think, bats actually have very good eyesight.


4. Although they have good eyesight, even bats need a little help at night. They find their way – and their prey – in the dark using amazing powers of echolocation: they produce a series of very high-pitched sounds and then listen for them bouncing off objects. This allows them to “see” in the dark.


5. Vampire bats really do exist – they bite the skin of other animals and then lap up the blood. But don’t worry – they rarely bite humans.


6. The bats who live in the UK have a less interesting diet, consisting mostly of insects. A pipistrelle may eat 3,000 bugs in one night!


7. The world’s largest bat has a wingspan of 2 metres! Compare this to the UK’s smallest bat, which is only 4 centimetres long.


8. You are more closely related to a bat than a mouse is!


9. Often treated unfairly by people who may have heard folktales about them or watched films that made them seem scary or nasty, bats have, for many years, been the victims of unprovoked attacks, causing their numbers to decline.


10. Because of falling numbers, bats are now protected in the UK. This means you can’t keep bats in cages and you can’t harm them or disturb their roosts.