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While hiking a trail recently, I met a friendly
bat who was willing
to answer some questions I had about him and his friends.
Ranger: Before we start, I have to ask you this. You aren’t a vampire bat, are you?
Bat: Oh, no! I’m a western pipistrelle. During the winter I sometimes hang out with some vampire bats way down in southern Mexico, but they don’t like to be cold so they won’t visit me here.
Ranger: So you won’t bite me during this interview?
Bat: I might if you try to touch me! We bats don’t like to be touched. It’s probably hard for you humans to resist, because we’re so soft and cute.
Ranger: You really are pretty cute, but I promise not to pet you. So if you don’t eat blood, what do you eat?
Bat: My friends and I eat insects. We especially like moths and beetles—those are our favorites—but we also eat mosquitoes, termites, flying ants, and anything else that flies in front of us. Some of my friends, the pallid bats, also eat scorpions and centipedes.
Ranger: That sounds dangerous!
Bat: Well, for a human it would be. But the pallid bats seem to be immune to the scorpions’ sting. It doesn’t bother them. You should see them at bat parties; they get wild and start playing with the scorpions, trying to impress the lady bats.
Ranger: It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of meat on a mosquito. On average, how many insects does it take to make a meal?
Bat: It depends on the type of insect I’m eating. I try to eat about one-third of my body weight in insects every night. Now, some of these female bats who are nursing babies will eat about half their body weight in insects every night. Some of my bat friends, the cave myotises, can eat about 600 mosquitoes per hour, and up to 3,000 mosquitoes per night.
Ranger: Three thousand mosquitoes per night? That’s incredible! But you don’t look overweight; how can you eat so much and stay so slim?
Bat: Aerobics. Try flying over a fifty-square-mile area every night, and you’ll stay pretty slim, too. Plus I’ve just returned from southern Mexico for the winter. Migration will sure burn off the calories!
Ranger: So that’s why we don’t see you bats around here much in the winter. Do you ever hibernate?
Bat: No, I fly south to warmer areas instead. But my cousins up north hibernate, since it’s pretty far for them to fly south. They sleep six months or more to avoid the cold. Personally, I prefer sunny Mexico.
Ranger: Let’s go back to what bats eat. In other parts of the world, bats eat fruit. Do you or any of your friends here in Big Bend eat fruits or berries?
Bat: No, most of us stick with pure protein. None of that sugary stuff. But there are some bats here that eat nectar. Look around the blooming century plants this summer in the Chisos Mountains, and you might see some of the nectar-eating bats—they’re called Mexican long-nosed bats because they spend most of the year in Mexico. I only see them here in June and July.
Ranger: At least nectar and fruit sit still while you eat them. How do you catch insects? I’ve heard you bats use sonar.
Bat: That’s right! We make really high-pitched noises like this...
Ranger: I don’t hear anything.
Bat: Because most of our bat sounds are too high-pitched for you humans to hear. Anyway, we make this noise and then listen for the echo. By listening to the echo, I can tell you a lot about whatever the sound bounced off of. I can tell you how far away the insect is, how fast it’s moving, how big it is, all kinds of things. In fact, I can find objects as fine as a human hair just by using my echolocation system!
Ranger: Maybe that’s why lots of people think bats are blind, since you can fly around in the dark so well.
Bat: We bats can still see. We just don’t rely on our eyes the way that you humans do.
Ranger: I see that you’re hanging inside a dead tree branch today. Don’t you bats normally live in caves?
Bat: Your national park doesn’t have many caves, so we bats have to make do with rock shelters, crevices in rocks, dead trees, and mine shafts. Mine shafts are neat because they’re so much like caves! Sometimes we live in buildings with you humans, or even in the expansion joints in bridges.
Ranger: Do you ever have to worry about predators?
Bat: Yeah—those snakes are devious! Snakes can crawl up trees and up rock walls; you have to hang way out away from rock walls if you want to stay away from snakes. Owls and hawks can be dangerous, too, and sometimes even skunks and foxes can climb up to where we bats live.
Ranger: That would be pretty scary. You’ve mentioned some of your friends, other types of bats who also live in Big Bend. How many different types of bats are there here in the park?
Bat: At last count, 19 species of us bats were found here in your park. This is a great place for bats to live because it’s warm most of the year; there are lots of insects; and there’s a lot of different habitat, so we can pick and choose where we want to live. For instance, some of my friends like to live in the high canyon walls above the river, while the long-nosed bats like to live up high in the mountains. Lots of us like to live in caves and deep rock crevices, but other bats only like to live in trees. So lots of us can live here without crowding each other.
Ranger: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me and tell me about your life. This has been really educational, and I think lots of people will enjoy reading about you.
Bat: You’re welcome. And I promise to stay out of their hair if they stay out of mine.
