Bats are the only flying mammals and the only animals that love to live in darkness. They are the species that have well-furred bodies with naked and transparent wings. Bats can be seen in caves, dark places, and trees.
You have noticed that bats can only be seen flying during nighttime. We don’t see them when the sun is rising, and we don’t know the reason why? Why do bats love darkness, and why do they like to fly at night only?
Why do bats only fly at night? Bats only fly at night because it’s a time when lots of their favorite foods come out, it is safer because their predators are sleeping during the night, and it is when bats can have more advantage because bats can see even in the dark.
Let’s discuss each reason more clearly on why bats only fly during the night and let’s also discuss other reasons.
Reasons Why Bats Only Fly At Night
Below are the full detailed reasons why bats only fly during night time.
1. There Is More Food During Night
Bats fly at night because, during nighttime, their favorite food is outside in the dark playing. What do bats eat? Bats love to eat insects like mosquitoes, moths, and spiders, and these kinds of insects are very active during nighttime.
Also, the other insect-eating birds are asleep, which means that bats will eat all insects alone, and they are like eating a buffet.
2. Much Safer
Every night the tough animals like lions, tigers, cheetahs, and eagles are all sleeping in peace. Bats also have predators, and their predators are sleeping during nighttime. What are bat predators? The predators of bats are wild carnivore birds like eagles, hawks, and falcons.
Bats living in the urban area have also come to learn that humans are sleeping and less active during nighttime. So basically bats also hate to go outside if there are any humans around. They are very allergic to humans.
Also, skies are clearer because all birds are sleeping, and there will be no birds that will encounter the bats on what they are supposed to do at night.
3. More Advantage
All people think that bats are blind and only use echolocation, which is wrong. Bats are not blind, and in fact, they can see better than humans and other animals. Bats have sophisticated echolocation systems that help them to escape danger and their predators.
Bats can also see during the day. However, they love to roam at night because they have many advantages. Bats have many advantages during the night because they have adequate hearing to find food in the dark of the night. Their prey cannot see in the dark quite well, which is effortless for bats to eat.
Also, if they wake up their predators, bats can easily escape because most of their predators don’t have good eyesight during nighttime.
4. Foods Are Much Tastier
This reason is related to our first reason on why bats only fly at night. The favorite food of bats is moths, and moths usually fly during nighttime. Bats love to fly at night because there are many moths out there flying.
How Long Do Bats Stay Out At Night?
Bats are not enemies like how Hollywood movies portray. They have a role in our environment, like preventing and controlling the insect’s population. Some bats pollinate flowers, and some bats help spread seeds for nuts, figs, bananas, and cacao.
Most bat species are nocturnal, which means that they are active during nighttime. There are many reasons why bats stay out at night. Some bats fly out at night to play, eat, mating, and to socialize with their fellow bats.
But, how long do bats stay out at night? Most bats stay outside the night for two-to-four hours. After bats eat many delicious foods or they have done what they have to do. They are more likely to go back to their roots or home to sleep out the rest of the night till morning while they are hanging upside down.
What Time Do Bats Go To Sleep?
Bats are nocturnal, and they are more active during nighttime. They started to go outside during the hours of dusk to dawn, and some bats that hate light go out if there is no sunlight at all. When the night approaches, bats begin to play.
If you are living in an urban city, you probably see that when the darkness approaches many bats start to fly around. I, myself, always see lots of bats during nighttime whenever I go outside to smoke some cigars. I noticed that these bats are naturally playing and enjoying the company of their colonies.
Bats will feed themselves for about two hours and sometimes for four hours, then they will rest a bit or play with other bats. After some break, they will eat again before the sun rises again.
What time do bats go to sleep? Every bat goes back to their roots and goes to sleep in the early mornings and before the sun rises. When bats sense that Mr. Sun is going to show up soon, they will find a branch or roots where they are comfortable and start to sleep upside down. Bats usually do things in the morning like sleeping, grooming, and socializing while they are in an upside-down position.
How Long Do Bats Sleep?
Bats are nocturnal animals which means that they are active during the night and more likely to sleep during day time. Bats start to become active when the sun is ready to go down for a sleep. If they sense that the moon is ready to show, then they will start flying around.
How long do bats sleep? Bats usually sleep during daytime. They sleep a lot during daytime so that they will have a lot of energy when night comes. Bats need energy to hunt for food, fly, use their echolocation well. They sleep throughout the day while Mr. Sun is around and they usually sleep at the branches of the tree in an upside down position.
Are All Bats Nocturnal?
Yes, bats are all nocturnal, and they love to hunt during nighttime. Bats hunt various bugs during nighttime, and some are mating if it is a season for mating. However, there are some reports that they saw bats hunt during the daytime.
In Tioman Island, some bats have been discovered to hunt during the daytime. What is the species of the bat? The species of the bat that caught hunting during daytime are Blyth’s horseshoe bats.
Blyth’s horseshoe bats are native to parts of India and the Malay Peninsula. They live in forest areas where trees are abundant.
Scientists have discovered that several of Blyth’s horseshoe bats are hunting insects in broad daylight every day. They have different behavior from every other bat species in the world because all bats hunt during nighttime.
1,400 bat species are living around the planet, and all of them hunt fruits, nectar, frogs, and insects during nighttime.
Scientists have hypothesized the reason why bats love to fly outside at night is that they are forced by birds to become nocturnal. Why?
Because birds compete with bats when it comes to food hunting. Also, many predators of bats are awake during the daytime. Because of these various reasons, scientists believe that birds forced bats to become nocturnal.
Why Do Bats Love To Live In Dark Places Like Caves?
Bats live in groups called colonies, and they are going to depart every night together. Most colonies of bats love to live in dark places like caves. Bats that are flying together inside a cave creates a chaotic noise! However, even though bats have adequate hearing, they usually ignore their navigation when they are inside the cave.
When you go inside the cave, and you distract the colonies of bats that are sleeping, they will most likely crash into you. The famous bat expert, Dr. Donald R. Griffin called this the “Andrea Doria Effect”. So you must avoid going inside caves, especially if there are colonies of bats sleeping inside.
Bats use their echolocation to avoid hitting various objects while flying. They also use their echolocation to catch prey during nighttime. Bats also can identify and capture insects while they are moving.
The echolocation is designed to locate everything using sounds and it is used by bats by capturing insects. Insects produced noises that cannot be heard by humans. But because of the echolocation bats, can hear every sound, including the tiny sounds of insects.
Bats indeed love to live in dark places like caves. The reason why bats love to live in dark places is that it hides them from their predators. After all, they use darkness to camouflage themselves. Also, they feel much more comfortable while they are in the dark.
Yes, bats love darkness, However, some types of bats love to hunt during daytime, and they sleep outdoors at night in trees, under bridges, and other outdoor locations. These types of bats have well-developed eyes, but their echolocation skills are not satisfactory.
What Are The Habitat Of Bats?
Bats can be seen almost everywhere around the planet. They have many species flying at night around the globe. Bats want a warm place, but they have some different ways to deal with cold seasons.
What are the habitats of bats? The different habitats of bats and there are where you can see them mostly are deserts, woodlands, suburban communities, caves, and cities.
1. Deserts
Bats can also be seen in deserts, and they can survive there. Many bats inhabit the southwestern deserts of America.
The species of bats that are famous for living in the desert are the big free-tailed bats, Brazilian free-tailed bats, and California Myotis. Many species of bats are living in the desert that is why I don’t mention them all because it will take a lot of time.
But how do these bats survive in the desert?
Bats that are living in the desert reduce water loss by changing the make-up of their skin. They can change the make-up of their skin, and they have different kinds of skin for every climate.
2. Woodlands
Woodland is any land that is covered with trees. The reason why many bats are living in woodlands is that they love to hang upside down on trees. Most bats prefer to sleep in the branches and roots of the trees.
The famous species of bats that are living in the woodlands are Bechstein’s bats, long-legged myotis, and serotine bats. Bats love to live in woodlands for different reasons. Some bats like noctules love to live in woodlands to use trees as roosts.
Woodlands also has many types of insect that is why bats love to live in the woodlands. Also, the woodlands are much quieter. Bats are quiet and chill types of animals that love to sleep every daytime. They love woodlands because it is much quieter.
3. Cities
Nowadays, many bats are living in the city and can cause some damage to human homes. Due to the rapid destruction of forests where bats usually live, many bats are forced to live with humans.
Humans tend to call some animal experts to catch the bat living inside their house. After that, the animal experts will release the captured bat to the forest where they should be living.
However, even though some people think that bats are pests, bats also have some benefits to humans. Bats love to eat insects, and they control the population of insects like mosquitoes. They kill different kinds of insects that are harmful to humans or that can bring disease to humans.
Bats also serve as pollinators and seed dispersers of many kinds of plants and trees that are essential to humans. Studies show that bat populations are one of the best indicators of how healthy and clean our environment is.
Why Do Bats Make Noise?
If you are living in a city, you probably heard bats making noise at night right? But what are the reasons bats make noise?
Bats make noises, but some of their noises are not audible to human ears. They are called ultrasounds, and they use them for echolocation. However, bats also produced some sounds that are audible to humans, such as chirping and squeaks.
Why do bats make noise? Bats make noise because of many reasons. Some scientists said that the noise of bats can be classified. They can classify what bats do when they produce certain sounds. Bats make noises if they argue for food, mating, or over the sleeping position.
In a recent study made by Yovel, they monitored the groups of Egyptian fruit bats. They record the audio, and they also record a video of the Egyptian fruit bats every day for two and a half months. They have analyzed that there are 15,000 bat vocalizations.
Yes. arguing is common for bats, Yovel says, but the Egyptian fruit bats are the species of bat that argue all the time. Yovel said that the noises produced by the Egyptian fruit bats are all sound of arguing. Yovel stated:
“Nearly all of the communication calls of the Egyptian fruit bat in the roost are emitted during aggressive pairwise interactions, involving squabbling over food or perching locations and protesting against mating attempts,”
“What they’re saying is stuff like: Why did you wake me up? Get out of my way,” Yovel says. “In the case of mating, it’s usually the female protesting against a male who is trying to mate with her.”
Final Words
Bats can be dangerous to humans because they can spread diseases like rabies. However, the case of bats infecting people is low because bats are also afraid of humans, and they are most likely to stay away from us.
Bats have many health benefits for our nature, and we should not let the population of bats shrink. They are essentially like any other animals living on our planet.
