Four cute bats to help you celebrate Halloween and Bat Week | Smithsonian Voices

Today is Halloween and the last day of Bat Week, making it the perfect day to admire beautiful bats like these four from Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species!

1. Hairy-legged vampire bat

This vampire bat lives in a variety of forested environments from northern Mexico south through Central and South America to southeastern Brazil. It has gray fur and prominent folds of skin around its nose and under its large black eyes. The flat, wide nose is sensitive to temperature, which allows the bat to find the best place to bite its prey: where there is a rich blood supply near the surface of the skin. This widespread but quite rare species hunts in forest and more open habitats. It roosts in groups of about ten in caves, abandoned buildings, and tree hollows. Roosting groups exhibit a consistent social hierarchy. They usually take blood from large birds that roost in trees. The bat sits on the underside of the same branch and feeds on the bird’s leg for about half an hour.

2. Lyla the flying fox

This species is declining, scattered in Southeast Asia, from southern Vietnam through Cambodia to Thailand. It is also present in Yunnan Province, China. A large bat, it has bright reddish-golden fur with a blackish face and ears. It is found in moist wooded areas and may visit orchards for food as well as forage in the forest. It is hunted for wild game meat in Thailand and Cambodia and, like other flying foxes, is widely persecuted as a crop pest, although colonies on the grounds of Buddhist monasteries in Thailand are heavily protected. Only twelve colonies are known in Thailand, the largest of which contains 3,000 individuals. Only three colonies are known in Vietnam. It appears to have undergone a precipitous, if poorly documented, decline.

3. Painted bat

Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species

The ultimate illustrated guide to every known species of bat, exploring bats and their fundamental role in our ecosystems through sumptuous full-color photographs and lively narration.

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This attractive little bat is found throughout much of Southeast Asia, from Myanmar and southern China south to Malaysia and western Indonesia. It is also known in parts of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. It is a spectacular and colorful sight, especially in flight; hands, fingers, and adjacent parts of the webs are bright orange-red, standing out against the blackish central parts of the wing webs. The function of its unusual coloring is unknown. The membranes of the body and tail are also orange, and on the belly they become white.

It is a species of dry forests, also visits plantations. It emerges after dark to make hunting flights that last an hour or two. It preys on leaves near and around the ground, such as grasses and bushes, using a slow fluttering flight. This bat has been observed roosting in female-female pairs (the female is often accompanied by her only offspring) in folds of dying banana leaves. Other daytime roosts include the nests of old birds. This species is affected by the loss of dry forest and changes in plantations, but remains fairly common.

4. Common vampire bat

This species occurs from northern Mexico through Central and South America to northern Argentina and Chile. Thanks to its long legs and elongated thumbs, it can easily run and jump on the ground, approaching prey, and quickly take off vertically. It has large sharp incisors and fangs. It roosts mainly in small groups in tree hollows and caves in a variety of tropical and subtropical habitats. Obtaining blood depends on large mammals, especially cattle – saliva contains anticoagulants, so blood flows freely. Territorial males protect groups of females at roosts. Females have close social bonds, maintaining friendships, mutual grooming, and mutual sharing of blood meals through regurgitation. This bat is overpopulated, has become an expensive pest and unfortunately needs to be controlled in pastoral areas. Direct threats to humans, however, are minor.

More details in Batswhich is available from Smithsonian Books. visit Smithsonian Books website to learn more about his publications and a complete list of titles.

Excerpt from Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species Marianne Taylor with photographs by Merlin Tuttle © 2018 Quarto Publishing plc; All photos © MerlinTuttle.org