Many plants rely on bats to spread their seeds and to pollinate flowers. Some of these plants include columnar cacti, bananas, mangoes, cashews, dates, figs, and agave. Agave is used to produce tequila, the seed production in this plant drops substantially without bats as pollinators. Salt peter used in artillery shells was once made from bat guano. Contrary to popular belief bats have very good eyesight.
Bats reproduce very slowly, most females have only one pup per year.
Bats that survive to adulthood may live as long as 30 years. The oldest recorded bat is the little brown bat, at 34 years old. A group of bats is called a colony and bats live in roosts. Due to loss of natural roosts and habitat many species have learned to live in man-made structures such as buildings, bridges and culverts. Forty-five species of bats are found in the United States.