As the COVID-19 pandemic slowly subsides, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) experts and colleagues from the Wildlife Conservation Society have partnered on a new analysis in The Lancet Planetary Health ...
Plants & Animals
13 hours ago
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59
For the first time ever, researchers can track the movements of bats with the help of a brand new algorithm utilizing radar technology, created by the University of Haifa and Tel Aviv University.
Ecology
May 31, 2023
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176
In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers have studied the efficiency of migratory bats—a species that weighs about eight grams and is found in almost all of Europe. Efficiency, ...
Plants & Animals
May 9, 2023
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188
There have been several studies pointing to an impairment of the cognitive abilities of pregnant women. A new Tel Aviv University study reveals that bats, too, experience a decline in their ability to hunt and orient in space ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 20, 2023
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Foraging greater mouse-eared bats invest more resources in hunting large, difficult-to-catch, ground-dwelling insects over smaller, more easily caught flying insects, despite a greater risk of failure.
Plants & Animals
Apr 18, 2023
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308
More than half of North America's bat species are likely to diminish significantly as climate change, disease and habitat loss take their toll, scientists warned Monday.
Ecology
Apr 17, 2023
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Over the past 20 years, coronaviruses in wild bat populations have led to three major disease outbreaks in humans: SARS in 2002, MERS in 2012 and COVID-19. The latter triggered an ongoing global pandemic. In turn, this has ...
Ecology
Apr 3, 2023
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42
Many mammals suffer hearing loss in old age, but bats were thought to be immune to this phenomenon because of the importance of hearing for echolocation. However, researchers in Israel have discovered that bats lose their ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 30, 2023
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9
Protecting wildlife across the world could significantly enhance natural carbon capture and storage by supercharging ecosystem carbon sinks, a new study led by Yale School of the Environment Oastler Professor of Population ...
Ecology
Mar 28, 2023
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146
In a new study, researchers have found that little brown bats suffering from white-nose syndrome (WNS) greatly increased their foraging activity at artificial bug buffets. The buffets, located near hibernation sites, will ...
Ecology
Mar 24, 2023
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See article
Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera (pronounced /kaɪˈrɒptərə/). The forelimbs of bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of flight (opposed to other mammals, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, that glide only for a distance). Bats do not flap arms like birds, instead they flap spread out hands where their fingers are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium. Chiroptera comes from two Greek words cheir (χειρ) "hand" and pteron (πτερον) "wing."
There is an estimated total of about 1,100 species worldwide, which is about 20 percent of all classified mammal species. About 70 percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, with a few species being carnivorous. Bats are present throughout most of the world and perform a vital ecological role by pollinating flowers, and eat various plants to dispere their seeds. Many tropical plants depend for their seeds to be distributed entirely by bats.
Bats range in size from Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat measuring 29–33 mm (1.14–1.30 in) in length and 2 g (0.07 oz) in mass, to the Giant golden-crowned flying fox which has a wing span of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and weighs approximately 1.2 kg (3 lb).
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
