WEBVTT - The Wild World of Bats 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.720 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to stuff to Blow 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.120 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.759 See if you have any bath houses in your yard 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.200 on your trees. I don't have any bath houses, but 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.560 I have a friend with bad houses. Did did they 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:26.560 actually have bats living in them? Because that's the heart 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.120 and anybody can buy them at the Lows Home Depot 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.360 and nail them to trees. But you got to nail 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.240 them in just the right place so the sun's hitting 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:35.800 them at the right time, so they're just they're warmed 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:38.640 enough that in they're they're high enough off the ground 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:43.040 that they're attractive real estate opportunities for the bat world. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.400 I believe her bat habitat has been successful. She's a 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:51.040 bat devotee because because my my my previous house, I 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.040 built one of these things. I nailed it up there. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.960 I was really hopeful we get some bats zipping around 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.440 the backyard eating up in sects, and never happen. So 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.680 I had like a bat for close in my backyard 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.040 that weeds growing all over it. Yeah, all the other 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.319 birds just kind of roosting on it. Yeah, just like 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.880 wasps or something moving into it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.080 do you have any direct like that experiences, like you've 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.560 ever been attacked by a bat, which is highly unusual 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.200 by the way, No, no, no, I do not have 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.400 any bad attack stories. That's some Some had some cool 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.720 encounters with bats on trips. When when my wife and 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.080 I went to Costa Rico, we got to see uh, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.000 we went on one of these night nature hikes in 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:32.160 the jungle and we got to see bats zipping down 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.600 and skimming fish a little bit of fish on the 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.679 top of a pond. That was nice. And when we 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:43.200 went on our honeymoon in um in Mexico, we uh 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.440 there were fruit bats in the area and uh, and 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.000 we were talking to some of the other people were 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:49.559 staying there. Everybody was in kind of like a little 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.320 hot bungalow type of the thing, and we were noticing 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:56.600 that that they had plastic screens up um high up 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.880 in the roof. And you're thinking, oh, I guess that's 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.160 to keep wind from blowing in or whatever, but that 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:03.559 it was there to keep the fruit bats from coming 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.040 in there and uh and roosting, because they would they 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:08.920 would get into the huts. They would roost up there 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.000 and then they they would just poop all over the place. 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:13.440 So I never got to see the fruit bats, but 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:15.880 there are lots of stories about it. And I kept thinking, oh, 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.040 if I, if I look closely, I'll see them. And 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.360 there is nothing like seeing some some bats flying around. 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.600 If you're you know, just at the sun's going down 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:25.880 and out of the corner of your eyes, you might 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.840 might just think of birds or insects, but then you 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:29.679 start noticing you realize all the bats are out, and 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.800 it's it's beautiful. I remember seeing some of the Grand 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:36.520 Canyon and that was that was just really really beautiful. Yeah, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:38.519 I was thinking, like, and of course that's a wonderful 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:40.480 backdrop to see it. But I was thinking even in 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.320 my suburban upbringing, you know, at night under the lights, 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.040 just seeing them swarm around was like this incredible thing. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.120 And that was very curious about them. And I remember 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:52.960 seeing them at a zoo and seeing them up close 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.800 and being completely just blown away because in front of 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.760 me was what looked like to be a common and sister. Right, 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.280 you look at these guys really closely in these gals 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:12.320 and uh some of the physiology grandfather. But I did um, 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.959 it actually sounds like maybe it burped at me. I 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.080 don't know. But you look the physiology of these guys 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.800 and then you really began to see, um, some some 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.880 interesting traits and and I'm not not to be crass, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.079 but I mean the woman I really got to look 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.440 at closely. The penis was very apparent. U. So you 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:33.560 began to look at that in the physiology of the 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.080 wings and we'll talk more about this, the arms and 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:40.000 the fingers that that seemed to be very similar to ours, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.280 and you began to think, Wow, this creature is is 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:48.200 very unique, not just because yeah, yeah, and I think 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.080 that's what people tend to think of when they yeah, 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.920 it is not. It is far more complex and and unique. 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.400 And we'll talk a little bit more about that. Um, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:02.120 but let's talk about the folklore, oh behind the bat. Well, UM, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.920 it's it's the most obvious thing that comes to people's mind, 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.520 especially Western Western minds, is of course that the bat 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.520 is a symbol of evil. The bat is a symbol 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.960 of of of vampires in disguise, and a lot of 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.000 this goes to the fact that you have you have 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:21.479 bats that when the sun goes down, they emerge from caves. 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.040 So they're emerging from the underworld when God's light leaves us. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.719 They're flying around in the dark, and of course we 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:29.880 end up with all sorts of stories about them flying 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.960 into people's hair or attacking people, which most of that 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.320 is is WHOI But certainly you do have vampire bats 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.360 that will have given the opportunity lap up a little 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:45.960 human blood or cat well cal's primarily they're they're they're 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.039 more favorite meal. But uh, but then you also have bats. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.159 Bats are of course susceptible to raby, so you will 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.880 have encound situations where bats will become rapid and will 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:59.119 become a problem. But but yeah, so evil bats easy 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.160 to wrap your head around that because they're emerging from 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.080 the underworld and they're flying over the place. Well, and 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.640 the vampire bats, as you had um just brought up, 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:08.680 have like you know, I guess you could say the 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.120 things um. And so you look at them, and you 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:17.680 can see fifteen sixteenth century settlers in the United States, 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:19.680 particularly when you begin to see some of this four 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:25.000 folklore really start to come up, and perhaps even witnessing 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.760 one of your cows being you know, blood sucked. Yeah, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.560 and of course your cow being attacked and especially back 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:34.359 in the day, I mean that was that was severe, 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.840 that was major business. I mean you would have people 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.679 would be brought up on witchcraft trials due to animal 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.640 deaths because I mean in part because you know, you're 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.320 living in an enlightened time with all of this folklore, 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.960 but also because it's a serious business. That's your livelihood 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.000 out there, and something's drinking its blood. Yes, So you 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.400 can see how these stories start to get um, you know, 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.040 bandied about. And then you've got this sort of vampire mythology, 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.960 and of course and you've got brand Stokers, Dracula and 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.680 forever more do you have the bat in the vampire 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:12.919 inextrictably linked together? Now, it's interesting, um to to quickly 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.280 dive out of folklore and then scurry back into it. Um. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.800 We have about we have over a thousand, over eleven 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.320 different species of bats in the world. Um. They make 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.400 up about a quarter of all mammal species. Uh. And 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.000 there are forty five different species of bats alone in 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.920 the United States and Canada alone. And if we look 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.159 at bats overall, we have mega bats, which are the 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:39.480 large bats that are found in Old World tropical rainforest Australia, Asia, Africa, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.800 and then you have the microbats, which are the ones 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:45.880 that are gonna occur you know, the United States, Western World, etcetera. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:48.960 So it's interesting to me that in those western the 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.599 western environments where you have the microbats, that's where you 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.160 see the evil ideas come to mind. But when you're 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.360 dealing with the mega bats, the which which generally we're 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.760 talking about root eating bats, large wolfish looking creatures, which 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.960 long muzzle, long muzzle, which in a way could conceivably 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:12.040 look a little creepier because they're bigger. But but but 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.920 also those these are the places where you find more 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.960 benevolent versions of the bat and folklore. For instance, in 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.640 Mayan mythology, they had they had a bad god um 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:28.440 which was named camazots um and uh and camazots means 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.960 death bats, so I guess he well, he wasn't completely benevolent, 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.280 but still uh, you know, he was big enough to 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.280 be a god. He wasn't reduced to demon hood. He 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.080 was he was a major player in the local cosmology. Meanwhile, 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.640 Chinese mythology sheds a positive light on the bats, where 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.200 they're viewed as symbols of good luck, and both the 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:50.320 Apache and Cherokee people's of North America enjoyed the bat 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:52.800 and viewed their presence as a symbol to something goodless 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.080 about happened. So it's a it's a good omen to 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.280 see the bat in the sky. What's the way I 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.040 I feel like I tend to look at him, you know, 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.200 if I if I noticed bats around, it's that's a 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.200 good day right now. And we'll talk about more about 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.320 the benefits of bats and why they're really important to 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.480 the ecosystem. But let's talk a little bit more about 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.600 the physical description of bats. Um As you had said, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.680 there's more than a thousand different species, and the size 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.800 is very greatly. The smallest is the bumblebee bat, and 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.640 that has I know, adorable right a six inch wingspan, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.679 while a Malayan flying foxes wingspan is six ft wide, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.400 which might strike tear into the heart if you happen 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.679 to just look up in the night sky. But still fascinating. 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.599 This the sort of variety here, Oh, real quickly. The 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.520 bumble bee bat also known as kitties hog nos bat, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.680 which which draws an important point about the whole bats 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.600 are evil, is that bats are often to to humanize 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:53.000 um rather possibly ugly to behold or or at least there. 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:57.440 Their features are often exaggerated, whereas a mouse, we know 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.280 what a mouse looks like. And certainly a lot of 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.760 the mega mats they have very their their heads tend 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.679 to resemble foxes, in myself a little more traditional, if 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.680 you will. Where's the microbats? You see some crazy stuff 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.520 like like the wrinkle face back, which will discuss later. Yeah, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.599 and I did want to um mention the Mega Carptera, 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.640 that's that's what you're referring to, the mega's there um 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.360 as you said, the flying fox. These these guys are 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.520 mostly vegetarians and they do feed on fruit and pollen. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.320 Hence your point. They seem to have a little bit 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.040 better of a reputation um and it's parts of the world. 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.440 And then the Microcryptia is as you said. You know, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.480 it's smaller, and it's got the pug nosed dog look 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.400 and it's a little bit odder looking and they're found 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.679 all around the world, and they are carnivores and they 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:50.079 feed primarily on insects. And I did want to point 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:55.079 out that bats belong to their own taxonic grouping uh Caroptera, 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:59.280 which means winghand. So we'll check we'll check out that 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.119 little wing hand in a moment. That's it's it's really fascinating. 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.840 But but first let's take a we we've walked through folklore, 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.120 we've walked through a little bit of taxonomy. Now let's 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.600 tiptoe just a little bit through philosophy before we really 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.400 get into the world of the bat. Because as if 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:18.400 we're putting all this together and we're coming this from 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:21.839 a human perspective, Uh so we're we're bringing our human 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.480 baggage with us, and we're trying to understand in a sense, 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:27.400 what it is to be a bat? What is the 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.679 bad experience? And there's actually a really awesome piece of 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:36.760 philosophical pondering from American philosopher Thomas Nagle, who was published 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:41.160 in The Philosophical Review back in four and it's um 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.200 and he basically asked a question, what is it like 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.280 to be a bat? And it's it's ultimately about the 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.839 limits of of our our our human perspective, and about 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.439 how when we're trying to imagine an alien perspective, be 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.360 it that of a bat, that of your dog, your cat, 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.480 that of a potential extraterrestrial species, they are there are 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:04.520 certain walls there that we just can't get past to 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.840 read just a quick quote from it. Here, Nagel says, bats, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.880 although more closely related to us uh than those other species, 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.440 nevertheless present a range of activity and a sensory apparatus 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.080 so different from ours that the problem I want to 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:22.840 pose is exceptionally vivid, even without the benefit of philosophical reflection. 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.960 Anyone who has spent some time in an enclosed space 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.600 with an excited bat, I love that knows what it 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.280 is to encounter a fundamentally alien form of life. And 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.280 then he goes on to say bats sonar, though clearly 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.560 a form of perception, is not similar in its operation 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.160 to any sense that we possess, and there is no 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.840 reason to suppose that it is subjectively like anything we 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.679 can experience or imagine. This appears to create difficulties for 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.360 the notion of what it is like to be a bat. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.760 And what I think is interesting about that is that 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.040 and yet we we can't help but try, I mean, 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.080 we're gonna try to, and that we're just a little 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.439 bit squeak through and get into this because it's so 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.880 fascinating to me. I was thinking about it um in 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.280 the same terms of when we were talking about sepal 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.280 of pods and our inability to truly understand them because 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.320 they're communicating in a way that that we would never 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.880 be able to be living in a different sensory world understand. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.120 And they are experiencing a color spectrum that we can't 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.280 even begin to understand because we don't have have the 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.720 machinery for it. Um. That being said, though, that we 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.240 can kind of get a glimpse into the world of 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.640 bats and how very cool it is. And we will 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:42.040 talk about eto location uh in this podcast, but we 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.600 have another one coming up that is devoted entirely to 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.679 that because you talk about the doors of perception flying 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.800 open when it comes to bats and their ability to 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.880 see and I'm saying that in quote marks, Uh, it 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.560 is amazing stuff. Yeah. So where do bats come from? 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.080 They didn't just fly out of a hole in the 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.040 underworld one day. They of course evolved like everything else 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.440 on Earth. And Uh, as best we can tell from 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.440 fossil evidence, they came about about fifty million years ago. 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.600 That's about how far back we have to look to 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:15.679 and find evidence for bat like flying mammals. Uh. They 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.280 probably started off in the trees, we think, instead eating 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.400 a little tree creatures, and then they began to really 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.559 go after a key market. Because evolution, of course, is 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.160 always about and I'm going to anthropomorphize evolution a little 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.199 bit here, uh, which I can't help it do, but 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.280 but evolution is all about going after a market, doing 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.320 what's work, what works, and I mean it's just extreme 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.760 business savvy. So you have the bats, right, and what 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.439 is this this vital market that they need to get into. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.640 They want to eat instincts. They need to eat instincts. 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.560 That's there, that's the thing. But there's a whole period 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.800 of time, a recurring period of time in which the 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.120 markets wide open. It's just right for the picking. They 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.560 just need the right evolutionary adaptations to go after all right. 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:02.280 So in other words, they show up on the scene 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.240 fifty million years ago and birds already well established and 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.679 they're eating up all of all of the prey, right, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.359 And so they looked to the night sky and they say, ah, 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.680 I see a smart dishport of insects there. If only 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.400 I could get to them. And essentially this is where 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.080 you begin to see where the bat becomes an extremely 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:27.520 successful mammal because it is able to then uh, basically 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.200 evolved into flight, which we'll talk about a little bit. 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.400 But also it becomes a nocturnal creature who can hunt 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:38.040 at night get all of those insects. But also it's 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.040 a it's able to use the cover of night uh 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.600 from other predators, so it doesn't get eaten up. Yeah. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.280 I mean, obviously there are nocturnal birds. You have owls 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:53.080 and and and some other creatures of avian creatures that 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.200 that do their thing at night. But for the most part, 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.920 this was a wide open space. So bats moved into 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.640 it and really they came to own the night. I mean, 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.960 they're they're certainly preyed on by some creatures, but but 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.400 they're really ruling it out there and have arguably become 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.240 one of one ill of, if not the most successful 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.360 mammals on the planet. Yes, yes, for this very reason. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.000 I mean, you can certainly the argument can fall to, 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.560 you know, rat versus bat. You could maybe make an 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.040 argument for domestic cat as well, but that that's a 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.680 slightly different business model. Yeah, and a whole other podcast 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.360 coming up, by the way. Certainly both the bats, both 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.640 the rats and the cats uh a certain amount of 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.920 their success to humans. But but the bats, they're doing 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.240 it all by wings, so so certainly you can give 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.600 the natural bump to them in the contest. Yeah. Um. 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.440 This is from the Department of Energy. Aska Scientist Mike 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.080 Stewart says that the night is really a win win 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:53.600 proposition for bats because they are better suited um as 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.520 as a mammal um to the night because they're expending 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.040 so much energy to stay in flight, so the cool 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.600 air would help them to had excess body heat, so 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.720 that's that's a boon to them. And because the night 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.480 air is cooler and has a higher density than the 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:08.320 hot air during the day, it makes it easier to 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.200 derive lift by flapping wings and cool denser air. And 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.320 again we'll talk about the wings situation in a bit, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.160 but as we know, bats aren't constructed like birds, so 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:19.600 they need all the help they can get in the 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.120 lift department. And then echolocation is um is one of 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.560 two main adoptions again here that make bats six such 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.280 successful nocturnal creatures. Yeah, it's worth noting there's no way 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.720 a bat is going to outply a bird. And if 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.520 you've if you've ever watched Atton Borrows the Life of mammals, 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.840 there's there or well now I can't remember if this 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:41.200 was an episode of the Life of Mammals are the 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.840 Life of Birds but one of those two series, I 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.120 just go watch them both. Uh, you get to see 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.120 this in action as as a mega bats afrigo, which 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.480 kind of fruit that it was? Um, I just have 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.720 a terrible time if they're up against predatory birds during 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.920 the daylight, swoop in and just take them because they're 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.240 they're just a total on a total different level performance wise, 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.800 but at night they're the they're the top player. But 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.360 it's really echo location that makes them this standout mammal right, 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.520 because their ability, this ability that they have evolved makes 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.480 them super successful. Yeah, they can navigate this world of night. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.080 They can find these often tiny they're a tiny creatures. 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.920 The flitting about out there in the dark is it's 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.160 zero in on them and swoop in for the kill. 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.639 All right, let's do a little brief overview of echo location, 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:30.560 and again we won't go into it too much because 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.320 we have a podcast devoted entirely to it. It is 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.720 that fascinating. Tom harris um is a House to Works 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.920 writer and he has an excellent how bats work article 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.040 to check that out. But he asked you to imagine 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.240 an Echo canyon when you think about echolocation, and it's 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.239 like a canyon, right that you shout in. Yeah, so 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.400 I'm thinking at the Grand Canyon. I don't know, I've 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.960 never actually tried about, but at the Grand Canyon, I 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.600 should say, when you shout, you produce a sound that 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.000 um that makes sound waves, obviously, and that travels across 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.960 the canyon, and then the rock face on the opposite 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.600 side of the canyon deflects the air pressure energy of 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.439 the sound wave so that it begins moving in the 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.119 opposite direction, heading back to you. Okay, So if you're 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:18.000 in an area where at atmospheric pressure, then air composition 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.479 is constant. Sound waves always move at the same speed. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.639 And if you knew the speed of sound in the area, 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.040 and you had a very precise stop watch, for instance, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.080 you could use sound to determine the disness across the canyon. 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.679 And he says this is the basic principle of echolocation. 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.080 Bats are making sounds the same way that we do, 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.360 by moving air past their vibrating vocal cords. In some 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.359 bats emit the sounds from their mouth, which they hold 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.359 open as they fly, and others emit sounds through their nose. 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.120 So yes, the basic principle of radar and sonar, I'm 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.320 sending out these waves that they're bouncing off something. And uh. 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:54.680 In sonar and radar you have either you know, a 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.679 guy sitting there with a stopwatch or more likely a 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.960 machine that's interpreting that data and letting know what distance 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.320 has been traversed with the bat. Of course, it's all 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.119 taking place in the brain. Yeah, something that we couldn't 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.600 never do right of this different data coming back at them, 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.000 and it puts us back in the nagle area of 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.159 how how do we even imagine that we we can't right? Right, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.720 because that that is something that is specific to them 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:20.960 and in second nature of course, and the way that 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.280 they can sit there in abstract um about this data 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.960 that's coming in. All right, so let's take a quick break. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.760 But when we get back we will talk about these 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:36.320 finger like bones in the bats wings that are so 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.520 wonderful and creepy and important to their ability to apply. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.920 All right, we're back, and yeah, we're about to take 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.040 wing with the bat. And if you look at the 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.520 any skeletal layout of the bat, and and there's one 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.320 with on our housetu works how bats work article, you'll 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.240 see that it really it's not a situation and of 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:02.639 and this is something that we kind of get gets 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.600 complicated with all of our visions of like bat like 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.880 wings and imagining creatures and dragons, you tend to see 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.200 a creature that has more like batman, you know, where 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:14.159 he has like more like a flying squirrel, where he 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.600 just has a bunch of webbing under his arms. But 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.160 most of what you're seeing with the bat's wings, those 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.040 are fingers, So that's it's a it's a hand that 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:25.679 has become wing. Yeah, and if you look at the 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.959 skeletal system, you will see what looks to be like 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.320 arms on on the wing stretched out on either side, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.720 and then five fingers draping from that um. And it's 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:40.760 just it's amazing because what it's doing is it's creating 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.399 sort of like these spokes, just like the spokes for 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.800 an umbrella in terms of giving it structure but also mobility. Yeah, 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:49.760 and then you have this webbing in between that of 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.440 course becomes the wing surface and uh, and that material 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:54.840 also has a it's really really remarkable, and it has 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.399 a heels really swiftly as it would need to do 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.240 because if you get that that stuff gets tord worn 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.920 or or or bitten or clawed at in any way, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:06.159 they need that to heal up pronto so that they 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.960 can fly again. Yeah, And that webbing, that elastic skin 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.400 stretches from the edge of the forelimb all the way 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:13.840 to the tip of an elongated little finger, and then 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.800 the wing attaches to the lateral side of the body 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.680 and lower limb down the ankle. And some bats also 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.040 have a membrane between their legs connecting to the tail, 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.679 and this hind leg wing integration is very different from 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.840