What Is In A Bat’s Natural Diet?
ANSWER
What Is a Bat’s Natural Diet?
Bats are unusual little brown mammals with the fact that they do fly. Few mammals are capable of flying thus making the bat species very unique. Also, the bats’ bodies are shaped differently than other mammals and are more lightweight. There is not a significant difference betweenbirds and bats when it comes to weight. The average weight of a bat is only a few ounces.
The Diet of the Bat
Bats eat more types of food sources daily to sustain their ability to fly. Bats expend a lot of energy to stay airborne. They have higher metabolic rates to take more food every day. An average little brown bats can consume food ten to twenty times daily for maintaining the normal bodily functions like flight. This is a lot of food for such a small animal.
Bats not only require getting a significant amount of bat food but also need protein specifically. Not all bats are the same and there are significant differences between their diets. Most are insectivorous bats that consume insects, while others eat small animals, and other ones like fruit bats feed off of fruit trees. These are bats that eat from a diet that doesn’t include meat, regardless of them having sharp teeth that make them look like carnivores.
However, most species of bats feed on things which are easy to capture. Some examples are insect pests like cockroaches, beetles, moths, wasps, crickets, bees and flies. A bat lives off of insects as happy meals; therefore the bat eats insects more often. Also, these insect are an easy food source and most bats like going after them. Bats don’t like being on the ground; consequently, they want to find bugs in the air that they can swoop in and catch. Due to the limited vision of the bats, they thus don’t like being in the light. For insects that aren’t attracted to light, they make themselves easy bat food.
Bigger vampire bats can go after small rodents. They go after little lizards, mice, and frogs since they are light enough for them to carry when they have captured them. Bats search for more proteins since it is their primary source of energy.