How much do YOU eat every day?
On a rainy Thursday afternoon, I walked about 15 minutes to the Bat Jungle. I did a self-guided tour and discovered some amazing facts about bats. Yes, I know bats eat a lot, but I did not appreciate the vast amount they eat daily. At the Bat Jungle, there were three different scales I could step on.
The scales showed how much I would have to eat, as a human-sized bat, in order to survive, depending on whether I ate fruit, insects, or nectar. If I were a fruit bat, I would have to eat 475 pounds of chopped bananas a day! If I consumed insects, I would have to go through a 3.75-gallon bucket of bugs. If I drank nectar, I would need to down 180 liters (47.5 gallons) every 24 hours.
The scales showed how much I would have to eat, as a human-sized bat, in order to survive, depending on whether I ate fruit, insects, or nectar. If I were a fruit bat, I would have to eat 475 pounds of chopped bananas a day! If I consumed insects, I would have to go through a 3.75-gallon bucket of bugs. If I drank nectar, I would need to down 180 liters (47.5 gallons) every 24 hours.
The photo shows what my ears might look like if I were a bat. I could definitely hear better when I put the hoses to my ears.
I'm not sure I'd like the new look though. I saw maybe a hundred bats sleeping, eating, and flying around inside a large glass enclosure. It was filled with feeders of nectar and fresh fruit hanging all over.
I imagine they toss insects in for those who depend upon insects for food. The bats that drank the nectar were busy flying around and would buzz in to quickly take a sip of nectar and then fly off. No wonder they need to eat so much! They certainly were using a lot of energy flying around. Many of the fruit bats were quietly hanging upside down with a piece of fruit clasped between their two hands just chomping away.
I imagine they toss insects in for those who depend upon insects for food. The bats that drank the nectar were busy flying around and would buzz in to quickly take a sip of nectar and then fly off. No wonder they need to eat so much! They certainly were using a lot of energy flying around. Many of the fruit bats were quietly hanging upside down with a piece of fruit clasped between their two hands just chomping away.
Other fun bat facts:
- A colony of bats can eat 250 tons of insects every night.
- Bats are excellent pollinators and many of the plant species in Costa Rica rely specifically on bats for pollination.
- Some bats eat meat including frogs, birds, fish, rats, and lizards.
- Some bats can fly 60 miles per hour.
- Baby bats are called pups.
- Bats have one baby a year and will leave them at home at night when they are young because they are too heavy for the mama to carry.
- A baby bat weighs about one-third the weight of a mother when it is born. That is like a 150 pound woman giving birth to a 50 pound baby. Holy smokes! That would be one big baby.
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