WEBVTT - How Do Fruit Bats Work? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:10.119 Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bolgabam. Here. You may have seen 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.280 one bat, but you most definitely haven't seen them all. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.800 That's because after rodents, bats make up the second largest 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.400 order of animals. There are over nine hundred different species 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.800 fluttering around, from a bumblebee sized hog nosed bat to 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.240 gentle giants with wingspans of five feet that's one and 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:33.840 a half meters or longer. Most bats eat insects, often 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.519 in copious amounts, and then you've got your big game hunters, 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.519 bats who have evolved strong enough jaw muscles that they 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.400 can kill off vertebrate prey such as fish, lizards, or birds. 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.640 And of course, the blood drinking vampire bats from Central 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.800 and South America need no introduction. But not all bats 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:57.560 are carnivores or vampiric. About three hundred species eat fruits 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.680 and other plants to survive, which works out great for 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.400 the rest of us because those flying creatures really help 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:08.440 the environment. One of the most important families of bats 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.240 is the terra Potidae, also known as the Old World 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.040 fruit bats. They hang out in tropical and subtropical parts 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:21.039 of Africa, Eurasia, Australia and many Pacific islands. I remember 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.280 those gentle giants we mentioned above. Those would be the 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.960 flying foxes enormous terra pottids, who represent the largest bats 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.880 alive today. A species called the giant golden crowned flying 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.520 fox can weigh two and a half pounds that's over 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.160 a kilo. It's a fruit eater of frugivore with a 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.400 taste for fix for the article This episode is based 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:48.000 on How Stuff Works. Spoke by email with biologist Liam McGuire, 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.480 an assistant professor at Texas Tech University. He said, Tea 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.960 pottids eat primarily fruit and nectar. For example, nectar from 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.440 the flowers of eucalypt trees is a very important source 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.920 for several species of flying foxes in Australia. But terrapottic 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.600 diets can also include other plants, pollen, leaves, and sometimes insects. 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.040 And now you might be thinking that the name Old 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.079 World fruit bats implies the existence of New World fruit bats, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.800 and indeed the Americas have no shortage of these creatures. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:28.040 The Philus domide is another large bat family, a one 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.280 that's distributed across the neo tropics of North, South and 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:36.200 Central America plus the Caribbean. While many species are committed 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:40.040 insect hunters, dozens of these animals incorporate plant matter into 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.720 their diets, and, depending on the batting question, fruits, nectars, pollen, 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:49.040 or seeds may be fair game. Housta Works also spoke 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.880 by email with Neberico Giannini, a mammologist and research associate 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.919 at the American Museum of Natural History. He said, frygivorous 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.359 bats in both the Old World and the New World 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.720 tropics eat a variety of fruits that tend to be scented, 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.880 relatively large, green to yellow in color, and exposed away 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:12.440 from branches and leaves. Bananas, mangoes, figs, and bates are 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:17.520 all favorite foods for fruit bats. The Old World terra 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.360 pottids alone feed on more than one thousand different plant species, 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.320 and most of these sevent grow fruits that the bats 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:29.200 like to consume. Other plants may attract terra potted visitors 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.160 because of their flowers, leaves, nectars, and sap shoots and 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:37.720 tree bark are fair game as well. Usually the relationship 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.680 has mutual benefits. Seeds swallowed by fruit bats get released 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:46.760 somewhere else when the animals poop. According to study, Tropical 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.520 bats in some parts of Mexico distribute more seeds in 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.400 this manner than fruit eating birds do, and after a 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:58.080 forested places devastated by wildfires, droughts, or human activities, fruit 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.560 bats help it bounce back. A research suggests that a 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.520 colony of a hundred and fifty two thousand African straw 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.640 colored fruit bats can distribute more than three hundred thousand 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.040 seeds in one night. This could be enough to get 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.640 the reforestation process started across some two thousand acres or 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:19.839 eight hundred hectares of land. Flower and nectar eaters do 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:23.279 their part as well. The bats are pollinators for upward 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.040 of five hundred thirty types of plants such as palsa trees, bananas, 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.920 and assorted cactuses. And then we have agave, a key 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.479 ingredient in tequila. A genus of migratory bats eat the 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.159 nectar from their flowers. In the process, these mammals spread 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.040 a gave a pollen around cross fertilizing the plants as 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:46.239 they go. Worldwide, roughly a thousand species of bats find 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:51.600 food and avoid obstacles easing echolocation. Echolocation is a sound 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:56.080 based navigating strategy. The process starts when an animal releases 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.640 high frequency sound waves through the nose or mouth, and 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.880 by carefully listening for an echo, the sender can decipher 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.520 a lot about its surroundings. That's how some predatory bats 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:13.200 track down moths and mosquitoes in pitch black darkness. Unlike insects, 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:17.360 though a piece of fruit can't fly away regardless, Ginnini said, 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:22.080 all New World frugivorous bats use echolocation. This type is 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:27.479 called sophisticated laryngeal echolocation, and it's essentially a laryngeal call 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.960 emitted through the nostrils and modulated using a nose leaf. 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.960 Nose leaves are weird structures found around the nasal openings 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.640 of many bat species. Meanwhile, most Old World fruit bats 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:46.480 do not echolocate, with a few interesting exceptions, McGuire explained. 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.760 Among the Terrapodidae, there are bats that echolocate by clicking 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:55.640 their tongues. This mode of echolocation has often been considered primitive, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.080 but studies have shown that their tongue click echolocation is 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:04.040 quite sophisticated. It. In addition, some Old World fruit bats 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.080 make clicking noises with their wings. It's not at a 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.359 location in the traditional sense, but echoes from those clicks 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.279 help the animals get around to aid in their quest 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.240 for vegetarian goodies. Many fruit bats have evolved a keen 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.159 sense of smell of flying foxes possess great eyesight as well, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.960 so much for the old myth that bats are blind. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.720 Today's episode is based on the article fruit bats are 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.680 the best pollinators and suppliers of tequila on House to 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.720 works dot Com, written by Mark Vancini. A brain Stuff 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:39.600 is production of by Heart Radio and partnership with how 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.960 stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.920 Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the heart 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.680 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:48.400 favorite shows.