This article will also appear on our website, and we will add the illustrations there, since many schools are still not equipped to open photos in e-mail. BATS by Elisabeth K. V. Kalko, Ph.D. Much has been learned in recent years about the usefulness of bats and the important roles they play in maintaining the health of ecosystems. Understanding the amazing diversity of bats will change the common belief that all bats are ugly and blood-thirsty. On the contrary, bats are highly beneficial animals. Insect-eating bats remove large quantities of insects from the environment, including many that damage plants or are regarded as pests to humans.
Bats are mammals and thus, female bats possess mammary glands which produce milk.
When baby bats are born, they are taken care of and fed milk by their mothers for a few weeks until they can fly and forage on their own. As is typical of most other mammals, the body of a bat, except for its wings, is covered by hair. Due to the way bats look at first glance, in some languages they are called 'flying mice'. Microchiroptera have a global distribution and include about 825 species worldwide. In all of Panam , we find about 120 species of Microchiroptera.