Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests Kids Page, Mammal Insectivores
Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests Kids Page, Mammal Insectivores
US Forest Service
There are more than 10 different species of bats found in the Deschutes National Forest. Most of these bats are exclusive insect-eaters, which means they only eat insects. Animals that only eat insects are called "insectivores". Not all bats are insectivores though. There are bats that eat fruit or other things as well! And perhaps you've heard of VAMPIRE BATS!? Vampire bats are not as scary as you might think. There are only three species of vampire bats (out of more than 1000 species of bats altogether!) and, though they do drink blood, they only drink the blood of sleeping cattle or chickens. They do this painlessly, and it isn't known to hurt the cows at all. So don't worry about them! And they don't live around here anyway.
Silver-haired bats are one of about 10 different bat species found in the Deschutes National Forest.The kind of bats that live around here are definite friends of mine and should be yours too if you aren't too fond of mosquitoes, because they eat literally TONS of mosquitoes! A single little brown bat can eat up to 3000 insects a night (50-100% of their entire body weight!)! That is between 600 and 1000 mosquitoes an hour! And I am definitely OK with that!
Please visit the website for the rest of the article.
Votes:3
Comments: 0