S7 E8: Big Bend Bats. A conversation with Dr. Loren Ammerman.

Will you give a, a general overview first of that order, I hope I'm saying it right, Chiroptera or Chiroptera, the bats? Because everyone would know vaguely what a bat is.

These, they know- we know they're mammals and nocturnal and they eat insects, but I think there's a lot more to it and maybe some subtle things that really separate them from other mammals.

Would you just define and describe that order, the order Chiroptera?

Yeah.

So Chiroptera, its name, so the chiro part refers to the hand, and then the ptera part, the P-T-E-R-A, refers to a wing.

So they are the hand-wing mammals.

And they're capable of flapping flight.

They are, they don't glide, they're, they're flapping when they fly, just like birds.

Uh, but they, they also are active at night obviously, many of them, and they're capable of echolocating.

Uh, so the combination of, uh, at least in this part of the world, the flapping flight and the ability to echolocate is what makes them unique compared to other mammals.

Uh, there are a lot of bats though that rely on vision and they don't need to echolocate.

And so those, they're still part of the order because they, they have the, uh, the wing of, in their hands, but they don't, um, they don't need to use the echolocation.

And there's other mammals that echolocate as well, so that's also not a unique, uh, structure-

Oh

... or, or serve it.

It's also found in cetaceans, for example.

Um, but the, the way that that wing forms, um, their fingers just elongate.

Their wing, their finger bones are much longer than any other mammal's, and the membrane runs between the fingers forming the, the surface, the, the wing surface.

Okay.

Do species that do not echolocate have a specifically different, you know, lifestyle? Are they more fruit eaters or something, or...?

Uh, yes.

So they have, they have larger eyes, better vision, um, and they are usually functioning in the crepuscular time period.

So in d- dawn and dusk, uh, although they can also, some of them, they can function at night as well.

But yeah, mostly dawn and dusk is their major activity period, and they're consuming fruits, um, maybe, maybe flowers as well, or nectar from the flowers.

Wow.