Do Bats Drink Blood?: Fascinating Answers to Questions about Bats

Barbara A. Schmidt-French, Carol A Butler

Rutgers University Press, Aug 31, 2009 - Nature - 176 pages

Bat biologist Barbara A. Schmidt-French and writer Carol A. Butler offer a compendium of insightful facts about bats in this accessible and expertly written question-and-answer volume. Numbering more than one thousand species in our world today, bats in the wild are generally unthreatening. Like most other mammals, bats are curious, affectionate, and even playful with one another.

Highly beneficial animals, bats are critical to global ecological, economic, and public health. Do Bats Drink Blood? illuminates the role bats play in the ecosystem, their complex social behavior, and how they glide through the night sky using their acute hearingłecholocation skills that have helped in the development of navigational aids for the blind. Personal in voice with the perspective of a skilled bat researcher, this book explores wideranging topics as well as common questions people have about bats, providing a trove of fascinating facts.

Featuring rare color and black-and-white photographs, including some by renowned biologist, photographer, and author Merlin Tuttle, Do Bats Drink Blood? provides a comprehensive resource for general readers, students, teachers, zoo and museum enthusiasts, farmers and orchardists, or anyone who may encounter or be fascinated by these extraordinary animals.

Contents

• ONE Bat Basics: 1
• When did bats evolve?: 7
• How high do bats fly?: 14
• TWO Bat Bodies: 22
• Can bats walk?: 28
• Are bats blind?: 30
• Do bats only fly at night?: 43
• Do bats hibernate?: 51
• Are bats the only animals that: 64
• Can bats swim?: 71
• SIX Dangers and Defenses: 81
• What is White Nose Syndrome?: 87
• SEVEN Bats and People: 93
• Are bats useful to plants?: 99
• Do people eat bats?: 105
• How can I build a bat house?: 112
• Appendices: 119
• Index: 149

About the author

Barbara A. Schmidt-French is a biologist, bat rehabilitator, and the science officer at Bat Conservation International. She is the coauthor of Medical Reference for the Rehabilitation and Captive Care of Insectivorous Bats.
Carol A. Butler is the coauthor of Salt Marshes: A Natural and Unnatural History(Rutgers University Press) and the coauthor/photographer of Do Butterflies Bite? Fascinating Answers to Questions about Butterflies and Moths and future Rutgers Animal Q&A books, including Do Hummingbirds Hum? and Why Do Bees Buzz?

Bibliographic information

• Title: Do Bats Drink Blood?: Fascinating Answers to Questions about Bats; Animals Q & A
• Authors: Barbara A. Schmidt-French, Carol A Butler
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 0813548403, 9780813548401
• Length: 176 pages
• Subjects: Nature / Animals / Mammals; Science / Reference