Bat Anatomy

To really appreciate how incredible bats are, it’s important to understand their
anatomy. Bats have a unique anatomy because they are the only mammals that can
truly fly. Humans are also mammals, so you’ll see that bats have some body parts
similar to humans like fingers and ears. Both humans and bats also have a tragus, but in
bats the tragus is much bigger because it helps bats to echolocate. Different bat species
also have different shapes and sizes of traguses to help them catch their favorite prey.

Check out the illustration see the features of a bat

Thumb

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Forearm
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2nd Finger
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3rd Finger
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Ear Tragus

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Wing Membrane
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Leg — 5th Finger ——

Foot
— 4th Finger
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Silver-Haired Bat
Art by Kat Dolamore
— — Tail

Vocabulary:
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Anatomy = how body parts are structured, what they do, and how the parts work together.

∙ Mammals = a type of animal that has hair on its body and that produces milk to feed its
babies when they are they are born.

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Tragus
Tragus = part of the outer ear that sticks out in front of the ear opening.

∙ Echolocate = when an animal uses a sound and echoes to find where objects are around it.

∙ Prey = an animal that another animal hunts or kills for food

Copyright Bur Oak Land Trust 2020

One way to see how humans are related to bats is by looking at their arm
bones. Take a look at the image below.

· How does your arm compare to a bat wing?

· What are the similarities between a bird wing and a bat wing?
What are the differences?
�

Thumb lndex Finger

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— Middle Finger
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— Ring Finger
Pinky

Upper Arm
Lower Arm
Wrist
Metacarples
Fingers

Thumb
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lndex Finger
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Middle Finger
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Ring Finger

Copyright Bur Oak Land Trust 2020

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Now try labelling the bat parts See

how many parts you can get right!

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Bonus Facts! —
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Most bats don’t drink blood.
Of the more than 1,000 bat species, only 3 species drink blood, and rarely from humans. They prefer to
from live stock and deer, and make a cut that they drink about an ounce of blood from.
Bats don’t just eat insects.
While many bat species eat moths, beetles, and mosquitoes, many bats specialize in eating fruit,
nectar, scorpions, frogs, and even fish
Bats care for each other.
Some bat species form maternity colonies, in which females give birth and help care and protect one
another’s pups. Vampire bats form strong social bonds, and have been seen to groom each other, and
even reguirtate blood to share with another bat that is under fed.
Bats help humans.
Bats play a huge role in helping humans to grow food, since over 300 hundred species of fruit,
including mangoes, bananas, and avocadoes, that depend on bats for pollination. They also help spread
fruit and nut seeds, including for cacao (the main ingredient in chocolate). Bats also help keep people
healthy, by pollinating plants that produce medicine and eating insects that spread disease.
Art
Artby
byKat
KatDolamore
Dolamore
Copyright Bur Oak Land Trust 2020