About bats
Bats are the world's only flying mammal and they comprise about one quarter of all the worlds mammal species.
All British bats are insectivorous, and in a group called ‘microchiroptera’; in contrast to the ‘megachiroptera’ group which are also called the fruit bats There are no native fruitbats in Britain, and also no vampire bats. British bats consume many billions of insects such as midges, gnats and flies each summer, some specialise in moths. In general they are a good indicator of the condition of our countryside: lots of bats show healthy ecosystems and that the plants and other animals are doing well. Sadly there are not so many bats as one would expect in this country….which is one of the reasons bats are so heavily protected by international laws. Bats are very long-lived mammals, with even the small pipistrelle species potentially living 15 years in the wild. Brant’s bats have been found at over 41 years old.
Although they have quite good eyesight, they hunt in the dark so emit their own sonar called echolocation which they use to find their prey and navigate with incredible accuracy. For this reason they are unlikely to crash into you so the myth about bats becoming tangled in hair is just that! These echolocation calls are at a very high frequency (usually between 20 - 110 kHz) so humans cannot hear them very well, which is why we use bat detectors.
Sunrise & Sunset
 |  |  | 07:31 | 13:16 | 19:01 |
| - | ||
Northumberland, UK
| Thursday 11.03.2010 | |||
 |  | 8°C | 4.0m/s 0.0mm |
| Friday 12.03.2010 | |||
 |  | 7°C | 8.5m/s 0.0mm |
| Saturday 13.03.2010 | |||
|  | 9°C | 7.3m/s 0.2mm |
