Fourth Grade
Worksheets
Bats: Furry, Flying Mammals
Bats are pretty amazing animals! Why, you ask? There are about four thousand different kinds of mammals in the world. About one-fourth of them are bats! Not only that, but bats are the only mammals that can fly. There are some flying squirrels, but they don't really fly; they glide.
Bats are not birds. They do not lay eggs, and they do not have feathers or beaks. Bats are mammals like people, dogs, and mice. Like all mammals, a mother bat nurses her baby with milk from her body. A baby bat is called a pup. Bats are nocturnal. They sleep during the day. They fly at night in search of food.
Bats are separated into two large groups. There are megabats and microbats. Megabats are mega-big. Megabats live only in Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia. They have large eyes, small ears, and their faces are dog like because of their long noses. Megabats have a wingspan of five to six feet. However, you shouldn't be afraid of them-almost all megabats only eat fruit, nectar, or pollen from plants. Megabats are often called flying foxes.
As they feed on plants and fly about, megabats help many plants reproduce. Seeds are discarded when the bat eats fruit. New plants grow from the seeds. Pollen from one plant often gets spread to others. This helps plants pollinate to make new seeds and new fruits.
