All about the North Carolina evening bat - Bats fall in the mammal category. They are in the Chiroptera order.

Appearance
The bat has forelimbs forming webbed wings and this makes them the only mammals that are naturally capable if sustained flight. Other mammals that are considered to fly only do so at very short distances. Bats don’t flap the entire limbs like the birds. They only flap the spread out digits. These are quite ling and are covered by a very thin membrane called patagium. They also have very sharp teeth.

Biology
They are second largest order in mammals coming after the rodents. They represent around 20% of the classified mammal species in the whole world. There are around 1240 bat species that are divided to suborders. There are the fruit eating and less specializedmegabats or the flying foxes as well as the echolocating and highly specialized microbats.

Diet
Bats have a vast diet. 100% of Charlotte bats are insectivorous while most of the others are fruit eaters or frugivorous. There are bats which eat pollen, nectar and fruits. Others feed on insects. Other things eaten by bats include small mammals, frogs, fish or blood.

Habitat
Because of their capability of flight, bats are one of the mammals that are so widely spread. Apart from very few areas like Antarctic and arctic, bats are found all over the world. They thrive in all the habitats in the world. Different species go for different habitats. However, they all have some basic requirements which include roosts where they hibernate or spend the day and foraging areas. Roosts are usually at manmadestructures, foliage, crevices and hollows.

Behavior
Many micro bats are actually nocturnal and therefore are only active whennight falls. Many bats migrate so as to hibernate in winter dens. There are also those that fall into inactivity when the weather is cold and only feed and rouse once the weather gets warmer allowing insect activity. They can hibernate for six months when winter falls. Bat will very rarely fly when there is rain as it interfereswith echolocation and finding food. There are some bats that live in solitary whole others live in caves colonized by so many bats at a time. Fission-fusion is also common in bats.

Life cycle
A bat can actually live well over 20 years. However, the population growth of the bat is quite limited because of their very slow birth rate. There are some 5 species of Charlotte bats that have been seen to actually live for over thirty years. When a bat is newly born, they rely on milk from the mothers. After a few weeks, the baby bats are expected to fly out and look for their own food. They have the task of finding their own prey and catch it and also find their own water.

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