Bats of The World: Seba The Amazing Seed Disperser

Seba the amazing seed disperser
Sebas short-tailed fruit bat weighs only 19 grams but is an incredible disperser of seeds. It is
probably the commonest bat in Latin America and eats fruits containing lots of small seeds, such
as piper fruit. One bat alone might eat 60,000 seeds in a night! On average there are 400 bats
in a Seba colony, which means that a group of this size could disperse almost 9 billion seeds in
a year. Even if only 0.1% of these seeds germinated, this would produce 9 million new seedlings
quite a feat for such a tiny bat!
Trouble brewing
Bats are threatened by disturbance to their feeding habitats or their roosts. In some areas of the
world bats are revered but in many countries they are feared. Bats are creatures of the night and as
such are sadly treated with suspicion and fear in folklore bats often have a negative press. Bats
also face the wrath of nature, especially on islands where they have to contend with cyclones and
typhoons that can devastate their habitat.
Bat Conservation Trust
Bats of the world

An introduction to the amazing variety of bats
There are more than 1,100 species of bats worldwide, making up
around one-fifth of all mammals. New bat species are still being
discovered but relatively little is known about many of these
incredible animals. Few people realise what an essential part they
play in the natural world.
On the way out?
All over the world
Approximately 25% of the worlds bats are threatened with extinction. Forty-four species are classed
as Critically Endangered and may not survive without human help. Sadly at least 12 species, such as
the Puerto Rican flower bat, have already gone the way of the dodo.
Bats are one of the most widely distributed groups of

mammals. Flight has enabled them to live all over the world
apart from the Arctic, the Antarctic and a few isolated oceanic
islands. There are bats in the far north of Scandinavia, as well
as in the deserts of the south-western USA.
But perhaps a bright future

Today there are more and more people working hard to conserve bats.
Educating the public is a top priority and in many cases people now
treasure their bats. Twenty years ago in the Comoros in the Indian
Ocean bats were declining. After much effort a community group was
established to protect the bats and numbers are now increasing. In
India, bats were officially vermin but the law has now changed the
first step towards long-term conservation.
The future for bats

The Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) wants a future where everyone, everywhere can enjoy seeing
and hearing bats as a natural part of their environment.
If you would like to know more about bats, you can join BCT or your local bat group. There are
nearly 100 bat groups around the UK, just ask us for details of your nearest group!
The Bat Conservation Trust (BCT)

15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG
Call the Bat Helpline today on 0845 1300 228 or visit www.bats.org.uk
The Bat Conservation Trust is a registered charity (number 1012361)
Photographs courtesy of Shirley Thompson, Mike Castle and J J Kaczanow
Above: white tent-making bats of Central America
The bat family tree
Bats are split into two major groups, the megachiropterans (megabats) and the microchiropterans
(microbats); the names are slightly misleading, as some megabats are small and some microbats are
big! Megabats occur only in the Old World tropics and subtropics, but are not found in the New World
of North and South America one species (the Egyptian fruit bat) just about makes it to Europe.
Microbats are found in both the Old and the New World.
Megas vs Micros
Megabats and microbats are different in many ways. Megabats have large eyes and often doglike faces; microbats have small eyes and often have elaborate facial structures. Microbats use
echolocation to detect their prey while megabats rely on smell and vision to find food. Megabats
feed almost exclusively on fruit and flowers, while microbats have more varied tastes, eating
insects, fruit, pollen, nectar, fish,
frogs, other bats and blood.
The megabats, such as the Egyptian fruit
bat pictured far left, look noticeably
different to the microbats, such as the
lesser horseshoe bat pictured on the left.
Hot tropics
Bats are most numerous in the tropics; Indonesia has 175 species of bats (over ten times the number
of species found in the UK), while there are 154 in Venezuela and 137 in Mexico. Central and South
America are home to almost one third of the worlds bats.
Forests need bats
Bats are vital to the health of forests. Many plants depend partly or wholly on bats for pollinating the
flowers or spreading their seeds. Bats are also important in helping regrowth after forest clearance.
In return, the forests are vital for the bats, providing food and roosting sites.
Little and large
Bats can be as large as a small dog or as small as a bumblebee. The largest bats are the flying foxes
with wingspans of up to 2 metres and a body weight of 1.5 kilograms. At the other end of the scale is
the bumblebee bat, weighing only 2 grams the worlds smallest mammal. Most of the worlds bats
are small, similar in size to those found in the UK.
Something to chew on
Chewing gum, tequila and sisal are just three products that come
from plants that at least partly rely on bats for pollination or seed
dispersal. Others include foodstuffs, drink, medicine, dyes, fuel, fibre
and timber.
Island paradise
Islands are interesting places for bats; many of the bats that occur on islands are found nowhere else
in the world and in some places bats are the only native mammals. On some islands in the Pacific
Ocean bats are so important that they are known as keystone species; without them the ecosystem
would collapse. In New Zealand there are only two native mammals, both of them bats; while in
Madagascar, there are 28 different species of bats, half of them found nowhere else in the world.
Lets go to the bat cave

Caves can provide shelter for bats. In temperate areas, bats use caves
as breeding sites in summer and hibernation sites in winter. Bats have
no need to hibernate in the tropics but caves are still important there.
Bats form the largest aggregations of mammals in the world there are
as many as 20 million in some caves in the southern USA, producing an
enormous amount of guano.
Left: greater horseshoe bats can roost in caves all year round
Whats on the menu?

Most bats eat insects, just like British bats. Some bats feed on pollen and nectar whilst others eat
fruit. A few are highly specialised and feed on fish, frogs and even other bats. There are also, of
course, the vampire bats that feed on blood (see the vampire bat facts on the right).
Flower power
In tropical forests, bats are important pollinators of many plant species. Some plants flower only at
night to attract bats. There are bats that behave much like hummingbirds their long, narrow faces
and exceptionally long tongues allow them to delve deep inside flowers to drink the nectar. During
their travels from plant to plant bats may carry pollen and therefore help to pollinate the flowers.
Fruits of their labours

Some bats feed on fruit, some of which are of commercial importance to us humans. Bats eat the
soft fruits but discard the seeds that later become mature trees. Avocados, peaches and mangos are
all fruits that might not be here but for bats.
A tasty snack
Bats are eaten by some communities worldwide. Even tiny bats no bigger than those you find in
the UK are consumed. It is the larger flying foxes that are most sought after, and in the 1980s a
flourishing trade in bat meat in the Pacific brought some species to the verge of extinction. This is
now controlled by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) but there are still
worries about over-hunting of bats in some countries such as Madagascar and New Caledonia.
The curse of Dracula

The famous novel by Bram Stoker has given bats a poor press. Vampires are a reality, but how much
do you really know about them? Here are some vampire bat facts to test your knowledge...
Vampire bats dont live in Transylvania; there are three species and they all live in Central
and South America.
Vampire bats rarely feed on human blood; they much prefer the blood of cattle, horses,
pigs and birds.
A vampire bat doesnt actually suck blood, it makes
a graze on its hosts skin to encourage a flow of
blood and then laps this up with its tongue.
Vampire bats are small. The commonest is only 7cm to
9cm long and takes approximately a tablespoon of
blood each night.
They are caring towards members of their colony;
apart from behaviour such as mutual grooming, they
will even take care of others who are unable to feed
by regurgitating the blood they have collected!
Stroke victims may soon benefit from studies of a
clot-dissolving substance in the vampires saliva.
Above: the common vampire bat

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Seba the amazing seed disperser

Bat Conservation Trust

Bats of the world

On the way out?

All over the world

Bats are one of the most widely distributed groups of

But perhaps a bright future

The future for bats

The Bat Conservation Trust (BCT)

Above: white tent-making bats of Central America

The bat family tree

Forests need bats

Little and large

Lets go to the bat cave

Whats on the menu?

Fruits of their labours

The curse of Dracula

Above: the common vampire bat

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