In Your Backyard Give up the idea that bats are blind, become entangled in human hair, and transmit diseases to humans and animals. Myths about bats abound, but the truths about bats are actually more interesting. Bats have been known to adopt orphans. Bats have been seen risking their lives to share food with less fortunate bats.
Bats are amazing Bats are the only mammals capable of flight.
One of the most successful groups of mammals, bats number 40 species in the U.S. and nearly 1,000 species around the world. The world's smallest bat, the bumblebee bat, weighs less than a penny. One of the world's largest bats, Lyle's flying fox, as a wingspan of nearly six feet. North America's common little brown bat has the world's longest lifespan for a mammal of its size, sometimes living longer than thirty-two years. The African heart-nosed bat can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet.