Bats

by Fenton, M. Brock

• ISBN13: 9780816043583
• ISBN10: 0816043582
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Checkmark Books

Summary

Oversized and lavishly illustrated with striking color photography throughout, Bats -- now completely revised -- is the best comprehensive natural history on this subject written for a general audience. Coverage includes bat anatomy and behavior, echolocation, vampire bats, and bat conservation.

Author Biography

M. Brock Fenton is a professor of biology at York University in Toronto, Canada. He has been studying bats since 1963. He received his Ph.D. in bat ecology from the University of Toronto in 1969 and has worked at Carleton University in Ottawa, and, since 1986, at York University. Dr. Fenton's research on bats has involved fieldwork in Australia, Zimbabwe, Belize, the United States, Costa Rica, China, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Guyana, Israel and Mexico

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introducing Bats: Their Anatomy, Origins and Flight	p. 1
The Names of Bats
Anatomy
The Origins of Bats
The Size of Bats
Flight
Studying Bats	p. 21
Catching Bats
Identifying Bats
Marking Bats
Other Approaches
Echolocation: The Sonar Sight of Bats	p. 37
The Echolocators
The History of Echolocation in Bats
Humans Discover Echolocation
Echolocation in Bats
Producing and Transmitting Echolocation Calls
Echolocation Signals
Receiving and Analyzing Echoes
The Advantages of Echolocation
The Disadvantages of Echologication
Switching Off Echolocation
Other Senses, Orientation and Migration	p. 55
The Other Senses
Orientation
Migration
What Bats Eat	p. 63
Food Processing
Animals As Bat Food
Plants As Bat Food
Finding Food
Water and Waste
Where Bats Roost	p. 79
Foliage
Hollows
Crevices
Special Roosting Habits
Variations in Roosting Behavior
Bats and Temperature Regulation
Hibernation
Aestivation
Social Organization, Family Life and Communication	p. 95
Roost Associations Among Bats
Reproduction
The Mating Game
The Young
Communication
Bat Populations: Production, Predators and Parasites	p. 109
Accidents and Problems of the Young
Predators of Bats
Parasites
Covivants
Parasites, Diseases and Survival
And Now Some Bats	p. 119
Old World Fruit Bats, the Pteropodidae
Mouse-Tailed Bats, the Rhinopomatidae
Hog-Nosed Bats, the Craseonycteridae
False Vampire Bats, the Megadermatidae
Slit-Faced Bats, the Nycteridae
Horseshoe Bats, the Rhinolophidae
Bulldog Bats, the Noctilionidae
Short-Tailed Bats, the Mystacinidae
Mustached Bats, the Mormoopidae
New World Leaf-Nosed Bats, the Phyllostomidae
Plain-Nosed Bats, the Vespertilionidae
Pallid Bats, the Antrozoidae
Free-Tailed Bats, the Molossidae
Vampire Bats	p. 149
Origins
Blood As Food
The Hunt
Risks and Social Support
Bats and Public Health	p. 155
Rabies
Histoplasmosis
Bats: Hazard or Nuisance?
Bat Control
Bat Conservation	p. 165
Habitat Destruction
Human Attitudes
Human Consumption
The Science and Education Market
Human Recreation: Caving
Pesticides
The Danger of Labels
Protecting Bats
Three Steps
Learning and Bats	p. 177
What's in a Diet?
Light Pollution!
Roosts
Spix's New World Sucker-Footed Bats
A "Solitary" Bat Becomes Colonial
Forests and Bats
High-Flying Bats
Echolocation
Communication
You Are What You Eat
Lactating Male Bats
Images of Bats	p. 193
Common and Scientific Names of Bats in Text	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 209
Index	p. 219
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Oversized and lavishly illustrated with striking color photography throughout, Bats, Revised Edition is the best comprehensive natural history on this subject written for a general audience. In addition to examining all aspects of bat biology, the book helps dispel many myths about bats, such as the idea that bats are blind.
Updated information includes:
Bat anatomy and behavior
Echolocation, or the sonar sight of bats
Senses, diets, roosts, and habitats of bats
The social organization of specific species
The proven existence of vampire bats
Bat conservation
Web sites that provide more information about bats.
The book concludes with a look at mankind's images of bats in art and folklore, in religion, and in the popular imagination.