Bats
... University of Maryland has found that the praying mantis has used this to its advantage. When being pursued by a bat the mantis can hear the clicks of the bat behind it and to avoid being eaten goes into a series of evasive maneuvers. First they extend their fore limbs, then they extend their abdomens which stop them. Then they go into a dive achieving a pace twice their usual speed and if still being pursued will crash into the ground to avoid being eaten. This and other insects also use hearing to their advantage. Moths also do amazing maneuvers in attempts of escape, similar to the mantis. Tiger moths even make their own ultrasonic clicks. It is not known whether these are to startle the bat or to warn it that the moth is distasteful spite the insects great efforts to foil the bat's sonar the bat still catches its prey more than fifty percent of the time. Some bats even have different frequencies than insects can hear. The competition between insects and bats will go on forever because they will counter each other's counter measures by evolving new strategies, and as James Fullard said "Evolution never stops." The food of bat usually becomes scarce during winter months so some bats hibernate while others migrate. When bats migrate they usually move from the South to far North during the summer and they return during the fall. Bats that hibernate prepare for the winter by getting fat in autumn. Then they fall into a sleep more extreme than their normal daily sleep. As in most animals, when hibernating their major bodily functions, such as heart-rate and breathing, are suppressed greatly. Bats are known to interrupt their hibernation because they have been seen in the winter. Disturbing bats during hibernation can be very destructive. This is because the bats have a limited supply of energy. The energy used when the bat is awake is huge compared to that when it is hibernating. Bats arise on occasion anyway to groom, or sometimes take a flight outside, and even to move to colder places, where they can survive with lower metabolism and save energy. Repeated awakenings can result in starvation during the late winter from lack of energy stores. In an extreme case in Kentucky, during the 1960's where a cave was a tourist attraction, the population of 100,000 bats starved to death after being awakened on several occasions. Bats have internal fertilization and give birth to highly matured young like humans. Most bats only have one baby a year. The bats mate in the roost and have little or no courtship. The pregnant mothers form separate nursing colonies from the others. Some species like the Mexican free-tailed bat, who migrate immediately after mating, produce a secretion that preserves the male's sperm until they reach their new roost. When their baby is being born the mother hangs by her thumbs to a tree branch. Its tail membrane acts as a cradle and the baby is born into it tail first. Then the mother hangs by one wing and cleans the baby with the other. It is then attached to the mother's teat where it will hold on during flight. In some species the baby is left at the roost when the mother is hunting, in others the baby is taken along. In the species that carry their young eventually the baby grows too big for the mother and is left in the roost. The bat then learns to fly and hunt its prey by itself. Some bats have developed special ways of adapting to their surroundings. Though most bats eat insects, some feed on fruit, nectar, small vertebrates, fish, and blood. The bats that eat fruit help disperse seeds by eating and then dropping the seeds in their droppings during flight. Those that drink nectar act like hummingbirds pollinating flowers (Anonymous 1991). Bats that eat small vertebrates along with insects and fruit are often called false vampires. These bats eat lizards, tree frogs, birds, rodents, and smaller bats. They kill their prey by using their strong jaws and teeth to break their neck. These bats have only about a two foot wingspan so their prey tends to be small. Bats that catch fish fly just above the water and catch the fish with its hind feet and use its sharp claws to hold it. It then maneuvers the ...