Batman Forever

We did make it to the zoo today, and it wasn't half bad.
There were a couple of giraffes, Lucy favourite, as well as a small bat enclosure, my favourite.

And so in honour of these amazing and often misunderstood creatures, I bring you: BatFacts.

The bat is the only truly flying mammal.
There are over 1200 known species of bats, just about 25% of all mammal species. Most of these bats are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Bats are very clean animals, and groom themselves almost constantly, like cats, to keep their fur soft and clean.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand which weighs about as much as a dime and is critically endangered due to habitat loss.
Most bat mothers give birth to only a single pup each year, making them very vulnerable to extinction.
Contrary to popular myths, bats don't become entangled in human hair (due to their excellent echolocation), and seldom transmit disease to other animals or humans.
Bats are more closely related to humans and other primates than they are to rodents.
A single little brown bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in a single hour, and is one of the world's longest-lived mammals for its size, with life spans of almost 40 years.
Many important agricultural plants, like bananas, peaches, bread-fruit, mangoes, cashews, almonds, dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.
Vampire bats adopt orphans, and are one of the few mammals known to risk their own lives to share food with less fortunate roost-mates.
An anticoagulant derived from vampire bat saliva is now used to treat human heart patients and stroke victims.
Nearly 40% of American bat species are in severe decline or already listed as endangered or threatened. Losses are occurring at alarming rates worldwide.
Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti.
African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet.
Fishing bats have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair protruding only two millimeters above a pond's surface.
Frog eating bats identify edible from poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs. Frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult-to-locate calls.
Little brown bats can reduce their heart rate to 20 beats per minute and can stop breathing altogether for 48 minutes at a time while hibernating. They may hibernate for more than seven months if left undisturbed, but can starve if they are awakened too many times during the winter, which causes them to run out of energy reserves before spring.
Tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders.


Admittedly not a great shot above, and I did take some great ones of lions, tigers and the like - but who hasn't seen those kinds of shots a thousand times before.