Do bats drink water? How?

Do bats drink water? How? Bats are very interesting. They are the only mammals that can fly. They make up about 20 percent of the mammal family. They like to live somewhere dark, warm, and dry. They are nocturnal creatures. People do not often come in contact with bats since they spend most of their time hanging upside down from ceilings and cave walls.

Bats and Drinking

It is rare to see bats drink. You might wonder if they are even drinking at all. The fact is bats do drink water and even blood. For some species such as the vampire bats, they often feed on the blood of other animals.

Bats’ sources of water are from lakes and streams. They drink while flying. They can drink in every available source of water at any given time. They use echolocation in order to track a body of water. Echolocation is the ability of bats to sense vibrations and movements around them at night. They will do this by emitting a high pitch sound. They can hear an “echo” or a reflection of that sound and will be able to track if there’s a body of water nearby. Bats love to drink. When a female bat is lactating, it will drink lots of water in order to provide milk for its young.

Bats drink from streams in a very fast manner. They will swoop down on the water and fly away. They will do this several times until their thirst is satiated. They don’t drink sea water or salt water. The need for water is strong when a bat is out for hunting. They also need a lot of water if they came from long months of hibernation inside caves. Some bats will just skim the body of water and will find a safe landing spot to lick the water on their chest.

There are many predators lurking on ponds and streams. This means that bats need to drink the water while they are in flight. Their legs are also not made for walking on land or skimming through the water. Therefore, it is necessary to drink while flying. They have a very technical way of drinking water. They just simply lick it with their tongue.



Other Sources of Water

The bats which consume fruits are called frugivores. They often look for fruits that are in season and they feed on the nectar and pollen for survival. Bats get most of the water from their body through fruits. They often avoid those fruits that smell strongly. Bats have small pointed teeth that are used to pierce through fruits. There are also some species of bats that consume the nectars of flowers. They use long tongues in order to reach the nectar. These bats are in danger of extinction. They often struggle to find flowers that have plenty of nectar in order to survive. Since bats use a lot of energy while flying and hunting for food, they can consume large amounts of fruits and water in a single night.


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