BRAZIL’S FAUNA
(Page prepared by a nature’s observer)

Bats
Order Chiroptera

 Introduction

    The species from the order chiroptera, generally and popular known as bats, are so hard to be observed in their natural habitat, because they are night animals, fly quickly and almost all of them are small and almost all are dark in their habitat of little light.
    So the interest that they represent for the nature observers.
    Besides this, we have dedicated this page for these splendid flight mammals for general public and the nature element observers can have basic notions about this animal.
    The bats are flight mammals that mostly live tropical and temperate areas in the world, being not only found in some oceanic islands and cold places.
    The most important factor that determines the abundance of bats' species are the food and housing distribution. The bats, normally, use as resting-place the nature places as caverns, where they sleep all day , sometimes in communities having million animals.
    In some studies developed by Eleonora Trajano (1984), among 1978 e 1980, in the Vale do Betaria caverns, at the south area of São Paulo State, there were 23 identified species, showing a high level of diversity of these animals for this neotropical region.
    The Chiroptera Order is divided into 18 families, 186 genders, and 986 species (as Ronald. M. Nowak. Mammals of the World. 5th Edition, vol. 1. pg. 190). But there may be some more described species after this edition.
    In Brazil there are around 140 described species.
    In a general division  in relation to the feeding, it may be said that bats are divided into:
    - Insectivoral bat: those that feed mainly by insects, that they catch while are flying;
    - Fruit-eating bats: feed most exclusively by fruits and some vegetables. They also eat some insects. They usually fly in groups;
    - Flower-feeding bats:  they mainly feed of flower pollen and nectar and sometimes of the insects that are found in them; They have long tongue and are small;
    - True vampire bat: feed of animal's blood, while they are sleeping.
    - Carnivoral bats:  they feed of small animals as frogs, birds etc.;
    - Fishing- eaten bats: feed of fishes, catching them on the water, with their paws.

    Consulted Bibliography
  - EMMONS, Louise H. Neotropical rainforest mammals- A field guide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
  - KOOPMAN, Karl F. Biogeography of the bats of South America in Mammalian Biology in South America. Special publication series- vol. 6. Pymaturiing Laboratory of Ecology. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1982. pgs. 273-302.
   -  NOWAK, Ronald M. Walker’s Mammals of the World. The Johns Hopkins University Press, vol.II, 5ª ed., 1991.
   - SANTOS, Eurico. Entre o gambá e o macaco. Coleção Zoológica Brasílica. Ed. Itatiaia Ltda. BH, 1984
   - TRAJANO, Eleonora. Ecologia de populações de morcegos cavernícolas em uma região cárstica do sudeste do Brasil. Revta. bras. Zool. S. Paulo 2 (5): 255-320.