A four chambered heart is the muscular organ in vertebrates that pumps blood received from the veins, into the arteries, thus maintaining the flow of blood throughout the entire circulatory system. Bats are one type of animal that do in fact have 4 chambered hearts, since they are mammals.

With that being said, all mammals are equipped with a four chambered heart system that pumps blood into all of the different parts of their body. Their blood brings oxygen to muscles and tissues. In addition, the red blood cells of mammals can carry more oxygen than in many other animals.

Some species of bats are edible. In places like Ghana, West Africa grilled bats are actually considered a gourmet dish. It is very common to find bats in food markets and restaurants in parts of China, Thailand, Guam, and Australia, etc. Among the most popular bats on the menu are different varieties of fruit bats and the very large flying fox bat.

Cooking Bats

In some countries bats are referred to as paniki and are often cooked in coconut milk. Pemba islanders usually cook bats by roasting them, while other cultures have been known to toss bat meat in soups and/or stir-fries.

Emerging Diseases In Fruit Bats

Recent medical developments have linked flying fox bats to a form of dementia called ALS/PDC. Among the native Chamorro people, the incidence rate was 50 to 100 times higher than sample populations. In addition to this, fruit bats have also been linked to trace strains of SARS, Ebola and other diseases. With all of these diseases on the rise, it might be wise to pass on trying that exotic bat dish you are offered while on vacation.

Bats are not deaf, quite the contrary actually. Bats can hear very well, and actually have very sensitive ears that help them navigate in the dark, find food, and survive. These animals use a technique called echolocation in order to locate objects and prey by sending out streams of high pitched sounds through their mouth or nose. Once these signals are sent out, they bounce off of nearby objects and send an echo back to the winged creature. Bats then “read” these echoes in order to determine the location, distance, size, shape, and texture of an object. They can even use echolocation to tell if an insect is edible or not.

Contrary to popular belief, bats are actually not as dangerous as many assume. In fact, they are not aggressive creatures by nature and are actually more on the shy side. These winged creatures spend most of their days roosting and might also occasionally be found in attics or the walls of occupied homes. Most homeowners will find them to be a nuisance due to their vocalization and activity. Odors and stains from urine, feces, and rejected food may also become an issue.

While bats are not out to purposely harm you or your pets, it is still important to be cautious if a bat comes near you or is residing in your walls. One possible danger to humans and pets is if a bat has rabies, however this is not as common as many think. Only a small portion of bats (less than 1%) are infected with rabies, and most bats will die shortly after contracting the virus. Even if rabies is confirmed in one or two bats in a colony, most of the remaining bats will be just fine and remain healthy. Symptoms of rabies include erratic flight, weakness or paralysis and activity during the daytime.

Most individuals who end up getting rabies from a bat resulted in them trying to help a grounded bat that is rabid and has fallen from its roost. If sick or dead bats are found, you should not touch them, instead contact your local health agency. In addition to rabies, one other possible danger to humans and pets is a bat’s feces, which is often referred to as guano. Guano is vey hazardous since it contains bacteria. It also produces an abundance of ammonia gas which is poisonous. If your dog consumes guano he could become very ill and possibly even die.

Most bats (about 70%) actually only eat insects which would technically make them insectivores, a subdivision of carnivores. These insects consist of moths, mosquitoes, flies and the like. Other bats however, eat fruit, while some consume nectar from flowers. Another species, the vampire bat, pricks the skin of animals and licks the blood from the wound. As you can see, there are many different types of bats, which have a wide range of food-related adaptations, so whether a bat is a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore is really dependent upon the specific species of group that you are considering.

In order to know if bats are producers or consumers, one must first understand what each means.

Producers

Producers make their own food. Therefore, the main producers are plants that feed themselves by using photosynthesis. Producers also form the base of the food chain.

Consumers

Consumers eat other organisms in order to stay alive. There are two classes of consumers: primary consumers and secondary consumers. Primary consumers are smaller rainforest animals, while primary consumers tend to be herbivores, although some may eat insects. Primary consumers are vary more than secondary consumers, who are technically predators. Since there are so many primary consumers in the rainforest, they provide an abundant food supply for their predators.

When looking at all of these facts, it is obvious to see that bats are primary consumers. Other primary consumers include monkeys, lemurs, sloths, bees, etc.

The word vermin is often used to describe a small, common, objectionable, or disgusting animal (lice, bedbugs or fleas, mice, rats, and cockroaches, etc). These animals are usually difficult to control and/or prey on game. Technically speaking, bats are not considered vermin, as they are actually quite beneficial to humans. Although they can be a nuisance if they are living in your house, they also eat up to half of their body weight in insects like mosquitoes, flies, and moths. They are also indicators of air quality and ecological health and they pollinate and disperse seeds for plants.

With a few exceptions, all mammals and birds are warm blooded, and all reptiles, insects, arachnids, amphibians and fish are cold-blooded. The temperature of an animal’s blood is related to its body temperature and determines whether or not that animal is warm blooded or cold blooded. Bats however, are one of the exceptions mentioned above, as they do not fall neatly into either category since they are unable to maintain a constant body temperature, and cool off when they are not active.

Warm Blooded Vs. Cold Blooded: What Does It All Mean?

Warm-blooded animals such as mammals and birds try to keep the inside of their bodies at a constant temperature. They are able to do this by generating their own heat when in colder environments and by cooling themselves when in a hotter environment. To generate heat, warm-blooded animals convert the food that they eat into energy. In order to do this, it means that they must eat a lot of food, especially when compared to cold-blooded animals. Doing so helps them maintain their constant body temperature. Only a small amount of the food that a warm blooded animal eats is actually converted into body mass. The rest is all used to fuel their constant body temperature.

Cold-blooded creatures on the other hand take on the temperature of their surroundings. This means that they are hot when the environment they are in is hot, and they are cold when the environment they are in is cold. Cold-blooded animals are much more active in warm environments and are quite sluggish in cold environments. This is due to their muscle activity, as it depends on chemical reactions which run quicker when it is hot and slower when it is cold. A cold-blooded animals is able to convert much more of its food into body mass than a warm blooded animal.

Staying The Right Temperature

In order to stay cool, warm-blooded animals sweat and/or pant to lose heat by water evaporation. They are also able to cool off by moving into a shaded area or by getting wet. In addition, only mammals can sweat. Warm-blooded animals can also shiver to generate more heat when they get too cold.

Cold-blooded animals differ from warm-blooded animals. They can often be found basking in the sun to try and warm up and increase their metabolisms. While basking, certain animals such as reptiles will actually lie perpendicular to the direction of the sun in an effort to maximize the amount of sunlight that will fall onto their skin. They can also expand their rib cages to increase their surface area and will darken their skin to try and absorb more heat. When reptiles are too hot, they will lie parallel to the sun’s rays, go into a shady area, open their mouths wide, burrow in cool soil or lighten their skin color.

Bats are not hatched, this is because they are actually placental mammals and all mammals have live births just like humans. Bats also drink milk from their mothers after they are born, just like all other mammals. In spring, bats return from migration or awaken from hibernation. It is during this time that the female bats begin having baby bats. A baby bat is referred to as a “pup.” Bat pups are very small when they are born, but they grow quickly. In fact, some species of bats will be flying and hunting on their own only a month or so after being born.

Bats, just like people, usually only have one baby at a time, and also just like people, they may sometimes occasionally have twins. When a pup is born it does not have hair. In addition, they are tiny, scrawny and pink. They have very strong legs and claws that help them hang tight onto their mother when she is roosting, and to the walls of the caves in which they reside when mother bat is not there. Unfortunately, if a pup loses its grip and falls, it will die.

Bats just might be one of the most misunderstood animals in existence today. In fact, many of the things you think you probably know about bats are probably not true. For instance, did you know that contrary to popular belief bats are not aggressive animals? Nor do they intentionally try to attack people or get tangled in your hair. Just as these facts about bats are nothing more than hearsay, folklore, myths, or rumors, so is the so called “fact” that all bats carry rabies. This could not be further from the truth.

Technically, less than half or 1% of bats are actually infected with the virus. In addition, bats are rarely ever aggressive as they are shy creatures and are probably even more scared of you than you are of them. Most bats that contract the rabies virus will actually die very shortly after and fewer than 40 people in the United States are known to have contracted rabies from bats during the past 40 something years. It is possible for a bat to be born with rabies if either its mother or father has the virus, but again, the chances of this are very unlikely.