As the light of day gives way to the darkness of night, out come the creatures of the night. These nocturnal creatures include bats, which evoke a sense of fear. The belief that bats are harmful is however not true.
Bats belong to the order Chiroptera (in Greek meaning ‘hand wing’). There is very little information available about the evolution of bats; however some evolutionary studies indicate that bats evolved about 50 million years ago. Bats are classified into two sub orders— the Microchiroptera or the microbats and the Megachiroptera or the megabats.
Bats are the only mammals with the ability to fly. By day these creatures live in the dark environs of caves, trees, wells, old building, bridges, abandoned mines, etc. By dusk bats can be seen flying around to gather food for themselves.
Depending on the species, bats have a varied diet which could include fruits, pollen, nectar, insects, etc. Some bats are carnivorous and feed on rodents and even other bats. Only the vampire bat feeds on blood. In India two species of these are present. They are Megaderma lyra and Megaderma spasma. It is also interesting to note that almost 70 per cent of the bats feed on insects.
1,100 species of bats are estimated to be found worldwide, accounting for about 20 per cent of all mammalian species. Of these, 117 species are known to be found in India. In Bangalore City, eight species of bats can be found today as against 24 species recorded in the first survey of bats in Bangalore conducted by Blanford and Thomas in 1912.
The decline in the number of species, both within Bangalore city and other urban areas of India, is because of the change in landscape and vegetation cover of these areas. Increasing human population has resulted in deforestation, which has affected the roosting and feeding sites of bats. Changing agricultural practices, including the use of pesticides, has affected insectivorous bats. Bats are also killed for food by humans and hunted as they are considered a bad omen.

Slow reproduction
Bats also reproduce rather slowly. Female bats are known to reproduce only one pup a year. Like other mammals bats also give birth to live young, mothers nurse their young with milk and are also known to carry their young while flying.
Bats play ecologically significant roles. They aid in both pollination of flowers and in seed dispersal. Insectivorous bats also help control the insect population. There are more than 300 species of plants in the old world tropics alone which rely on bats for pollination (Bat Conservation International), so one can only guess what would be the fate of these plants if the bat population continues to decline?

Useful ‘pests’
Bats, especially the fruit bats in India, have unfortunately been classified as vermin (pests) as per the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. A more recent revision of the Act has however classified two species, the Salim Ali fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) and the Wroughton’s free-tailed bat (Otomops wroughtoni) as protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
But Indian bats which account for one-fourth of India’s mammal fauna and more than one-tenth of the world’s bat species deserve a much better conservation status than has been currently accorded to them. But this is only possible when people do not treat bats as pests, get over their fear of bats, and also increase their understanding about these wonderful creatures.

Bat crossword
1. Wildlife Protection Act classifies fruit bats as .........
2. Bats use ......... for navigation as well as for locating prey
3.  ......... are amongst the largest bats in the world
4. Seventy percent of the bats world wide feed on ...........
5. Bats aid in ............
6. Bats belong to the order ...........
7. Bats are the only.............. with the ability to fly
8. The young one of a bat is called......
9. Bats are ............ animals.
The author would like to thank Mr Riki Krishna from the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore for assistance provided in compiling this article.

Centre for Environment Education

 Answers 1. Vermin 2. Echolocation 3. Flying Fox 4. Insect 5. Pollination 6. Chiroptera 7. Mammals 8. Pup 9. Nocturnal.