Animal Activities #71

• What are the myths you've heard about bats?
• Are bats regarded as mammals or birds?
• Do bats really have night visions?

Bats are actually mammals. They are classified as mammals because they have furs and give birth to their young ones alive. They also breastfeed their younger ones.

Bats cannot be classified as birds because unlike mammals, birds have feathers in place of furs, they lay eggs and do not give birth to their younger ones alive. Birds don't breastfeed their younger ones. These are the features that made bats to be classified as mammals and not birds.
A bat is more closely related to a dog than it is to a sparrow.

How do bats see at night?

Bats uses a highly technological biological system known as echolocation.
Bats produces a high frequency ultrasonic sounds using either their mouths or nose. These sounds travel through air until it hits an object and bounces back to the bat in form of an echo. Based on how sensitive the bat's ears are, it is able to catch the returning echo right on time. This echolocation used by bats helps them to determine the size of an object, the distance of the object, the direction as well as texture of the object.

What myths were you told about bats that you discovered not to be true?

Growing up, we were told that bats defecates through their mouths. I only go to discover this is false and just a myths when my older brother usually go and hunt for bats within the neighbourhood and brings for me to prepare. 😊
Yeah, hope you ain't surprised that people eat bat meat? It's a very sweet delicacy. Though I quit eating bat and a few other animals when I discovered they are good reservoirs for a number of diseases. The common one is the Ebola virus.

Let me conclude with this short story told by my grandmother a long time ago.

She said that a very long time ago in the birds kingdom, all the birds were looking for who they were going to crown king of the birds cos they were looking for a leader that will pilot the affairs of the birds kingdom.

The rooster came but all rejected him because it was always with the man. They fear that all their secrets will be leaked to man by the rooster.

The eagle came but he was also rejected because other inferior birds protested that if the eagle becomes their king, it will eat them all.

The peacock came but others rejected him that he has too much pride.

The last bird to come was the bat. He told them how special he was, how he will be able to watch over them both during the day and night, how he has teeth to be able to fight and bite off any enemy that attacks...
All the birds were convinced that the bat will make a great leader and is qualified to lead them, just when they were about to crown him, the parrot raised an objection.
The parrot said the bat was never one of them as it never had any of their features. Infact, the parrot threw this questions to all the birds around: he said, "if we finally gave him (bat) this crown, how will he put it on since the bat always hangs upside down?" He said the bat was never fit to wear the crown and that was how the bat lost out.

What's your little knowledge about bats?

What myths were you told about bats that you later discovered were not true?

Before now, do you classify bat as a bird or mammal?

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