Bats eat at night because they are nocturnal. They sleep in the daytime and are awake at night.

Many bats eat insects, fish, frogs and small animals. The small brown bat we have in Eugene eats insects. It can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in one hour!

A lot of bats, including the flying fox, eat fruit.  Although some of these bats are pests to farmers who own orchards (groups of trees that grow food), they play an important roll in nature.  The fruit bats spread the seeds of the fruit they eat. They are responsible for scattering up to 95% of the seeds needed for new trees in tropical rain forests.

Unfortunately, when most of us think of bats, the vampire bat is one of the first to come to mind.  Vampire bats don’t really turn into Count Dracula. They rarely bite people, and they rarely kill their prey. Instead, vampire bats use their sharp teeth to make a cut, shaped like a V, through an animal’s skin. Then they lick the blood. Vampire bats mainly prey on cows, horses, and other large mammals.

Bats can be found in most parts of the world — forests, deserts, jungles and cities!  There are close to 1,000 different species of bats.  With all of these different bats, it’s not surprising that they don’t eat all the same thing.

Learn more about bats by watching this video.

1: Introduction | 2: Wings | 3. Diet | 4. Habitat | 5. Babies | 6. Senses | 7. More About Bats