Bats: What are they?

Summary: To this day, bats have been one of the most misunderstood animals. Join Kiersten as she reveals what bats are and begins a new series about these amazing creatures.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean

 

Show Notes:

“Bats in Question: A Smithsonian Answer Book,” by Don E. Wilson

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

 

Transcript

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Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

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Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… This is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

My name is Kiersten and I have a Master’s Degree in Animal Behavior and did my thesis on the breeding behavior of the Tri-colored bat. I was a zookeeper for many years and have worked with all sorts of animals from Aba Aba fish to tigers to ravens to domesticated dogs and so many more in between. Many of those years were spent in education programs and the most important lesson I learned was that the more information someone has about a particular animal the less they fear them. The less they fear them the more they crave information about them and before you know it you’ve become an advocate for that misunderstood animal.

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

This series is near and dear to my heart. We will be delving into the world of bats. To this day, this species of animal remains one of the most misunderstood in the animal kingdom. Despite all of the PR efforts of researchers, naturalists, and photographers, humans still cannot look past some of the myths about bats. But we will start off with the firstling I like about bats, what they are.

As I mention in the opening of each series, I earned my Master’s of Science studying the breeding behavior of the tri-colored bat. This is a small species of insectivorous bat native to eastern North America. I studied them in the state of Georgia. I was already enamored of bats before I undertook this research, but working up close with these tiny creatures solidified my love of them and expanded my respect for them as a species, so this series of Ten Things I Like About….is all about the misunderstood bat.

Let’s start at the beginning. What is a bat? Loyal listeners, you know where this is going. We are going to start off with some taxonomy. 

Bats are classified under Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Cordata, Subphylum Vertebrata, Class Mammalia, Order Chiroptera, Suborder Megachiroptera, Family Pteropodidae, Suborder Microchiroptera, and under Microchiroptera there are many more families. 

What does all this classification tell? Kingdom Animalia means bats are animals as opposed to plants or invertebrates. Phylum Chordata puts them in a group of living beings with a central flexible rod supporting their dorsal side or back. Subphylum Vertebrata means they have an internal skeleton that supports their body. Class Mammalia puts them in the same class as us. Bats are mammals which means they have hair on their bodies, they give live birth, and they nurse their young with milk. Order Chiroptera is the order specific to all bats and Chiroptera is Latin for hand-wing. There are two suborders for bats, Suborder Megachiroptera is the group of larger bats (mega kind of gives that away) and Family Pteropodidae refers to the Old World bats that are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Family Pteropodidae contains around 45 genera and approximately 200 species of fruit-eating bats.

The second Suborder of bats is Microchiro