Bats


Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
* Make a Venn Diagram comparing bats and birds.
* Use the predicable sentence "Stellaluna looked far below her and she saw _____."
* Let the children illustrate their own sentences and then put them together to make a class book.
* Compare bats and owls.


Bat Facts
* Bats are the only flying mammals and comprise the second largest order of mammals in the world.
* A bat's grasp is strong enough to hold its entire body weight while its body hangs upside down.
* Along with whales, dolphins, and some shrew species many bats use echolocation (sonar dependent on pulse sounds and echoes) to identify and track prey.
* Bats eat fruits, flowers, leaves, insects, frogs, fish, small mammals, reptiles, blood of vertebrates.
* Just one insectivorous bat can eat 600 or more mosquitoes in a single hour.
* Bats live between 4 and 30 years, depending on species.
* In the United States nearly 40% of our bat species are listed by USFWS as endangered species or are candidates for it.
* Fruit and nectar-eating bats are among the most important seed dispersers and pollinators of tropical rain forest tree and plants.
* Less than � of 1 percent of bats have rabies.
* Bats are not blind.
* Bat babies are called pups.

Books:



Bat Poems and Songs

Bats are sleeping(to the tune of Frere Jacques)
Bats are sleeping
Bats are sleeping
Upside down
Upside down
Sleeping in the morning sun.
Waiting for the night to come.
Then they'll fly all around.
Then they'll fly all around.

Bats Poem
Are all bats hairy, scary things
Rushing past on muffled wings,
Out of caves into the night,
On some silent, secret flight?
I think not! I think they're great!
No matter size or shape or weight.
From radio waves to airplane wings
Bats can teach me many things.

Two little bats
Two little bats hanging in a tree
One named Dan, one named Dave
Fly away Dan
Fly away Dave
Come back Dan, Come back Dave!

The baby bat
The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
"Turn on the dark,
I'm afraid of the light."

Another Bat Poem
A bat can hang upside down
It holds on with its toes
When it wants to find some food
It spreads its wings and goes
A bat might live inside a cave
And fly around at night
And when it's dark a bat knows how
To get around all right