Fittermouse Essay
Flittermouse, And Everything Else You Wanted to Know About Bats
A flittermouse is an old English name for a bat which also closely matches a bat’s name in Swedish and German. Bats are mammals belonging to the Chipotera order. The word chipotera has an ancient Greek origin of two words; cheir meaning hand and pteron meaning wing. As the name suggests, these mammal’s forelimbs form webbed wings. Because of this feature bats can sustain a flight for long. There are two suborders of bats, microbats and megabats both with over 1,240 species. The Flittermouse lives in most regions of the world except the overly cold regions and is considered ecologically and economically important in pollinating flowers, distributing fruit seeds, consuming insects, …show more content…
Megabats mainly feed on pollen grains, fruit, and nectar. They are smaller in size and therefore have high metabolism and burning of energy as they move. Bats that feed on nectar are specially adapted with long muzzles and extensible tongues with fine bristles. Insectivorous bats feed on grasshoppers, crickets, termites, bees, wasps, flies, beetles, and moths among others. Other bat species feed on vertebrates including mammals, lizards, birds, fish, and frogs. Vampire bats feed exclusively on mammalian blood like that of cattle. They detect these prey through their breathing and heat emitted from their bodies. To reduce competition with birds and to avoid contact with other predators, predatory bats hunt at night managing to travel long distances of up to 500 miles in one night searching for food. They get their water needs from the food they eat though some species get water from lakes and streams by dipping their tongues as they fly by without stopping.
Physical Description
Generally, all bats have a similar shape and wing structure though different species have finer details depending on the diet and social adaptations. Bat species vary in size. The largest bats may weigh up to 2.2 pounds and have a wingspan of up to five feet. The smallest mature bats have a mere wingspan of six inches and weighs about 0.07 pounds. Bats have mouths closely resembling that of rats
A flittermouse is an old English name for a bat which also closely matches a bat’s name in Swedish and German. Bats are mammals belonging to the Chipotera order. The word chipotera has an ancient Greek origin of two words; cheir meaning hand and pteron meaning wing. As the name suggests, these mammal’s forelimbs form webbed wings. Because of this feature bats can sustain a flight for long. There are two suborders of bats, microbats and megabats both with over 1,240 species. The Flittermouse lives in most regions of the world except the overly cold regions and is considered ecologically and economically important in pollinating flowers, distributing fruit seeds, consuming insects, …show more content…
Megabats mainly feed on pollen grains, fruit, and nectar. They are smaller in size and therefore have high metabolism and burning of energy as they move. Bats that feed on nectar are specially adapted with long muzzles and extensible tongues with fine bristles. Insectivorous bats feed on grasshoppers, crickets, termites, bees, wasps, flies, beetles, and moths among others. Other bat species feed on vertebrates including mammals, lizards, birds, fish, and frogs. Vampire bats feed exclusively on mammalian blood like that of cattle. They detect these prey through their breathing and heat emitted from their bodies. To reduce competition with birds and to avoid contact with other predators, predatory bats hunt at night managing to travel long distances of up to 500 miles in one night searching for food. They get their water needs from the food they eat though some species get water from lakes and streams by dipping their tongues as they fly by without stopping.
Physical Description
Generally, all bats have a similar shape and wing structure though different species have finer details depending on the diet and social adaptations. Bat species vary in size. The largest bats may weigh up to 2.2 pounds and have a wingspan of up to five feet. The smallest mature bats have a mere wingspan of six inches and weighs about 0.07 pounds. Bats have mouths closely resembling that of rats