Atlanta's Best Bat Removal

What is a Bat's Natural Diet?

In the world today, there are over a thousand species of bat. With so many varieties living in different parts of the world, it seems odd to think that most of them share any major similarities aside from appearance. In reality, many of these species feed on the same types of food.

The Most Common Diet

The most common bats feed on insects. Those insectivores use their echolocation to locate all manner of insects from the flying mosquitoes to crawling beetles. Approximately 70 percent of the bat population around the world is hunting insects every night.

While flying, they swoop up their prey with their wing or tail membranes. Then, without landing, they lead their prey right into their mouths to eat. Depending on the species of bat, they will eat insects in a different manner.

To capture insects on the ground, some bats will fly by and snatch it with their mouths to eat their meal where it is safer. Others will land right where they caught it and take off immediately after the meal is finished. Not flying for a bat can be dangerous.

In one hour, a small brown bat can consume around 600 mosquitoes. They live in colonies with thousands of bats, which means hundreds of thousands of insects get eaten. With such a helpful method of controlling the insect population, it is hard to know what might happen without these little critters.

Sweeter Than Honey

In various parts of the world, frugivores are bats that feed on flowers, nectar, pollen, or fruit. There is a larger variety of size bats that feed on these plants too. These mammals fly by fruits and snatch it up with their mouths, then perch to eat them. Sometimes, they like to feed on the sugar water from hummingbird feeders too.

The bats that feed on nectar have long tongues that slide into the long well of a flower that makes nectar. When not feeding, there is a small cavity in their chest between their heart and lungs that the excess tongue rests in. Unfortunately, these little bats are slowly going extinct. Finding their source of food is a lot harder for them than it is for the ones that eat fruit or insects.

In tropical regions, epaulette fruit bats eat a lot of figs every night, weighing up to three times their body weight. Most bats will avoid colored fruits or those with a strong scent, preferring to poke holes in the plant and suck out the juices. Seeds and pulp are then discarded which can help the local plant life spread. They usually focus on seasonal fruits but some of their favorites include mangoes, bananas, and dates.

Uncommon Diets

Other bats look to feed on various small prey. This can include fish, frogs, lizards, small birds, small rodents, and even other bats. They have larger feet with sharper claws to hook their prey for consumption. These carnivores of the bat world only make up a small part of the entire population and are not common in the US.

Rarer Than Rare

Blood is another food source but only for three out of the thousand species of bats we know about. Instead of sucking blood, like mythical vampires, they target sleeping cows, sheep, or other livestock. They make an incision that is small and painless. The saliva from the bats' mouths contains an anti-coagulant chemical, which means the blood will not clot while they lick up the drips with their tongue. These guys are tiny and thus only need to drink two teaspoons a night. Such a small amount is not even enough to wake up a sleeping animal.

Drinking Water

Of course, bats need water to survive too. Some bats will swoop down over a water source to drink while flying. Most of the time, they will land on or in a water source and take off again, licking whatever water is on their chest for their drink.

Diet and Head Shape

Studies have found that the shape of the head of a bat can correlate to the type of food it eats. In general, fruit eaters have short, broad faces for biting rounded fruits while nectar feeders have long, narrow muzzles for reaching into flowers. Those who feed on blood have more upturned noses to get close to the skin with their tongue.