Bats - Pipistrelles

Posted by danyoura

Planet Earth is populated with more than one thousand species of bats. 20% of all mammal species are bats.

In Chinese tradition bats represent longevity, happiness and luck. They are a sign of luck in Poland and to Arabs.

Among Native American Cherokee and Apache the bat is a trickster spirit. They are sacred in Tonga and West Africa.

Bats are featured on the coats of arms for kings in England and Spain. They fly on Valencia's yacht club flag and its soccer team's badge.

Bats are associated with vampires who are said to be able to shapeshift into fog, bats and wolves.

Bats are a symbol of the night and rebirth from the old into the new.

The Name "Bat"

From Dave's Bat Blog

I can't help thinking that the English language has failed to play fair by the bat. I mean what sort of word is "bat" to describe such a graceful, enigmatic and fascinating animal? The one distinction the word has is that it was given to a Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Bat, built in 1896. HMS Bat served in the Mediterranean and in home waters during the First World War, before being sold for scrap in 1919. The name was revived during World War II for a naval tug.

So where does this odd little word come from? It is thought to be derived from the middle english word for the bat: bakke, possibly as a result of confusion with the latin word for a night-flying insect: blatta. Bakke itself is likely to be a shortened version of the old Danish word for a bat: natbakka, or night flapper. Sticking with our Scandinavian forebears, the old Norse had a wonderful name for them: leorblaka, which means leather flapper. That name must come from someone who had seen a bat's wing close up. It's such an evocative name it's almost worth reviving it!

Other forebears of ours (an awful lot of old races contributed to Britain over the years) also had some interesting names for the bat. The old english word for bat is hreremus (pronounced rear-mouse), meaning "shaky mouse". Whoever came up with that name had certainly watched a foraging pipistrelle!

When the Romans came to Britain they brought the latin word for bat: vespertilio, derived from vesper, their word for "evening". From this comes the family name for all our British bats, apart from the two horseshoe bat species: vespertilionidae. It's also the original root for another bat word. In old Italian vespertilio became vipistrello and thence the modern Italian word for bat: Pipistrello, which of course led to Pipistrelle.

Wikipedia on "Bats"

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight (other mammals, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, can only glide for limited distances). The word Chiroptera comes from the Greek words cheir  "hand" and pteron  "wing," as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body.

A measure of the success of bats is their estimated total of about 1,100 species worldwide, accounting for about 20 percent of all 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. Bats perform a vital ecological role by pollinating flowers, and also serve an important role in seed dispersal. Many tropical plants are entirely dependent on bats.

Bats range in size from Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat measuring 2933 mm (1.141.30 in) in length and 2 g (0.07 oz) in mass, 3' 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).

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Bat links:

Sonora Museum on Bats

Wikipedia on Bats

Wikipedia Pipistrellus

Wikipedia photos and sounds

Bat Sounds