Bat

Bats (order Chiroptera) are the only mammal group capable to sustained flight and the second largest mammalian order behind the rodents with over 1,400 species – approximately 20% of all mammal species. The earliest-known fossil bat is from 52.2 million years ago and already closely resembled modern day bats. The bats range in size from the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, which weighs just 2.6 grams and is similar in size to a bumblebee, to the giant golden-crowned flying fox with a wingspan of 1.7 metres. They also have a great diversity of diet – while most eat insects, there are also bats that feed on fruit, nectar, fish, small vertebrates and, in the case of the three vampire bats, blood.

## Appearances in Dorling Kindersley Vision media

### See How They Grow

One of the four segments in Tree Animals is about the life cycle of a fruit bat – the cover of the episode’s VHS shows an Egyptian fruit bat, but a clip suspected to be from this episode shows Indian flying foxes.

### Eyewitness

A total of episodes of Eyewitness have at least one species of bat appear. Of the nine bat species, two appear as studio footage – the Egyptian fruit bat briefly appears in Mammal while the Indian flying fox appears as studio footage in Mammal, Monster and Plant. The other seven species appear only in stock footage.

* **SEASON ONE**: Jungle, Amphibian, Skeleton
* **SEASON TWO**: Tree, Mammal, Prehistoric Life
* **SEASON THREE**: Flight, Monster, Plant, Planets, Life

Most of the episodes only contain a single bat species – at least a couple have three species of bat appear (Monster and Flight), while the most species-rich episode for bats is Mammal, with four species.

Some of the bat species that appear only in Eyewitness are the little red flying fox and the fringe-lipped bat.

### Amazing Animals

A total of thirteen episodes of Amazing Animals have at least one species of bat appear, although only as stock footage. Both seasons one and four have bats appearing in four episodes, although bats appear in episodes in all four seasons.

* **SEASON ONE**: Nighttime Animals, Animal Senses, Animal Builders, Animal Journeys
* **SEASON TWO**: Scary Animals, Animal Mothers
* **SEASON THREE**: Animal Hunters, Creepy Crawly Animals, Farm Animals
* **SEASON FOUR**: Underground Animals, Animal Helpers, Scaly Animals, Animal Flight

Notable bat species that appear only in Amazing Animals include the hammerhead bat, little bent-wing bat, greater bulldog bat and Honduran white bat. The episode with most species appearing is Animal Flight, which had eight species of bat shown.

The fruit bat received the silver award in the Golden Gecko Awards for Animal Mothers, while the vampire bat got the bronze award in Scary Animals.

As well as the real bats, Amazing Animals also has a cartoon Bat. Bat appears in all four seasons, but only appears in ten cartoon segments throughout the entire series.

### Creatures Fantastic

Of the episodes of Creatures Fantastic so far discovered, three have bats appear. Creatures of the Night includes the common vampire bat, describing the chilling coincidence between their discovery and the myths of vampires. The bats did not inspire the mythology, as they only live in South America that was found by explorers long after the myths originated.

Dragons and The Underworld both contain Egyptian fruit bats, although they do not play an important role in either episode. In Dragons they briefly appear flying around in the dragon’s cave during the St George sequence. In The Underworld they again appear briefly as one of the creatures in the Greek underworld, during the sequence where Heracles fights with Cerberus.

## Total species

At least 18 species of bat have appeared across all the Dorling Kindersley Vision series:

* Little red flying fox, *Pteropus scapulatus*
* Indian flying fox, *Pteropus giganteus*
* Grey-headed flying fox, *Pteropus poliocephalus*
* Common nectar bat, *Eonycteris spelaea*
* Hammerhead bat, *Hypsignathus monstrosus*
* Egyptian fruit bat, *Rousettus aegyptiacus*
* Leschenault's fruit bat, *Rousettus leschenaultii*
* Little bent-wing bat, *Miniopterus australis*
* Greater bulldog bat, *Noctilio leporinus*
* Seba’s short-tailed fruit bat, *Carollia perspicillata*
* Common vampire bat, *Desmodus rotundus*
* Lesser long-nosed bat, *Leptonycteris yerbabuenae*
* Fringe-lipped bat, *Trachops cirrhosus*
* Honduran white bat, *Ectophylla alba*
* Wrinkle-lipped bat, *Chaerephon plicatus*
* Mexican free-tailed bat, *Tadarida brasiliensis*
* Greater sac-winged bat, *Saccopteryx bilineata*
* Brown long-eared bat, *Plecotus auritus*