Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests
Crooked River National Grassland

Conservation Education Kids Pages Mammal Insectivores There are more than 10 different species of bats found in the Deschutes National Forest.  Most of these bats are exclusive insect-eaters, which means they only eat insects.  Animals that only eat insects are called "insectivores".  Not all bats are insectivores though.  There are bats that eat fruit or other things as well!  And perhaps you've heard of VAMPIRE BATS!?  Vampire bats are not as scary as you might think.  There are only three species of vampire bats (out of more than 1000 species of bats altogether!) and, though they do drink blood, they only drink the blood of sleeping cattle or chickens.  They do this painlessly, and it isn't known to hurt the cows at all.  So don't worry about them!  And they don't live around here anyway.

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The kind of bats that live around here are definite friends of mine and should be yours too if you aren't too fond of mosquitoes, because they eat literally TONS of mosquitoes!  A single little brown bat can eat up to 3000 insects a night (50-100% of their entire body weight!)!  That is between 600 and 1000 mosquitoes an hour!  And I am definitely OK with that!

So, have you heard that bats are blind?  WRONG.  Some bats actually have really good vision and almost all bats can see a little.  But most insectivorous (bug-eating) bats don't rely on their eye-sight to catch all those little bugs.  Instead, they rely on their AWESOME hearing.  Bats use a technique called ECHOLOCATION which helps them navigate and hunt in the dark.  This works because bats have a much wider hearing range than humans.  They give out calls and then listen for the echoes to bounce off any objects in front of them.  From the sounds that come back, the bat can tell if there are bugs or a tree in front of it!  That can be an important distinction to make!

Even though these guys can look pretty strange, they really are mammals.  They are covered with hair, nurse their young with milk, and are warm-blooded.  They are the only mammals that can truly fly.

USDA Forest Service - Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests
Last Modified: Thursday, 05 May 2005 at 17:55:24 EDT