Mexican Bats
Country: Mexico.

México is known by its biological wealth. From the mountains to the most desertic zones, México lodges an amount of exquisite life that surpasses by much to other greater countries in territoral extension. To speak about divertisty in simple terms is to speak about number of species. This is practically translated in the different plants an animals that we see when we go outdoors.

In a world-wide level, the CONABIO considers that there are twelve megadiverse countries, that is to say, there are countries where most of the diversity of the planet is concentrated, and Mexico is one of these countries. For example, just in vertebrates, México occupies the first place in number of reptiles and second in mammals, just to mention some. In opposition to which one would think, the great diversity of Mexican Mammals is given by two totally different groups to each other and of secretive habits (difficult to observe them and generally nocturnal), these are the Rodents and the Chiropterans that represent near the 79% of mexican mastofauna (diversity of mammals). To the second group belongs to the Bats.

The bats are contained in the Chiropteran Order of the Mammalia class. In the world there exist around 940 species, and in the country there are approximately 138 species, almost 15 % of the world-wide total.

If we want to evoke the image of a bat we will all agree in animals with hair, winged and that furrow skies at night. And with the exception of the first, each one of those characteristics is very peculiar in them. They are the only mammals with the capability to fly, perfectly developed and therefore, the only ones that have wings. The wings correspond morphologically, to membranes between very extended fingers that allow to sustain themselves in air. The phenomenon to move in the dark is given by a quite complex mechanism call echolocalisation or echoradar that consists of small snaps of different wavelengths that when bouncing in the obstacles return being registered by the bat, all of this ¡in fractions of seconds!. It is as if they drew a faithful image of the place only shouting and listening to its voice.

In addition the nourishing habits of these surprising animals are different, there are frugivorous (they eat fruits), polinofagos (they eat polen), nectivorous (they eat to nectar); and there are carnivores, in these they differ by being insectivorous (they eat insects), ictiófagos (eat fish) and others that in addition to the already mentioned, eat small animals like frogs, small lizards and even other mammals. As peculiar data, in this group exists a type of feeding only with blood, hematofagia is called and it only appears in three species. This great variety of feeding forms makes bats very important beings within the places where they live, participating at different levels in dynamics of an ecosystem (In this way the process to eat and to be eaten make flows the matter and energy within a biological system).

The Bats are beneficial for the balance of the ecosystems like for example the insectivorous, that when living in colonies of several thousands of individuals and consuming up to two grams of insects per night, become controller from detrimental plagues to some economic activities; the nectarivoros and polinofagos bats help the pollination of plants, and it is known that there are very narrow relations between some species of plants with some of bats that are only pollinated in the presence of them. The better known examples are the pollination of the Agave and some cactaceous in danger of extinction. As long as the frugivorous ingest the mature fruits of several plants and cover great distances at night, they help to the dispersion of seeds in the forests, being even for some investigators, primary factors of reforestation.

The bats, like all the alive organisms, constitude a part of the daily life, therefore we can find them not only in wild habitats like forests, deserts or jungles, but also in parks, in old buildings and many more places, feeding themselves mainly of insects. Their houses can be from great caves and trees to old houses and sewage systems. And the number of these can be of dozens until hundreds or thousands of individuals forming great colonies.

When we spoke of the bats that are potentially harmful to the man we only talked about to those of sanguineous feeding, these are only from three species in the world, the common vampire (Desmodus rotundus), the vampire of hairy legs (Diphylla ecaudata) and the vampire of white wings (Diaemus youngii), on which first is fed on domestic animal blood, while the other two are fed mainly on blood of birds. The common vampire is the species that causes damages to the man, being this vampire the responsible of great losses in the cattle-rising. The popular belief that they are sucking animals of human blood or that they are mortal, is only a myth, and due to this erroneous idea many species of bats (as we already said they are beneficial in most of the cases) are in extinction danger. We must be aware from the important paper that take these alive organisms in its world that is also ours.

As it has been exposed, a deeper knowledge about the life of these animals can open the guideline to us towards a beautiful and fascinating world, and realize that many other animals are in danger to disappear by an ignorance and unjustified aberration.

In Mexico the presence of Bats is well-known and nowadays, with a good education on the subject and awareness on the importance of these in its habitats, can secure the populations of these winged animals that are very useful for the man and the nature.

They are never to be caugth without the advising of specialized people in its study. Nowadays is possible to observe them and enter in the adventure to know more about these sensible organisms, being united to scientific expeditions and reach this way the possibility of knowing them as they are. Do not make disturbs in their place of refuge, because they are fragile animals that, when seeing themselves in danger, can attack to what bothers them.

Ecoturismolatino thanks Biol. Noé Castellanos Ramos and Biol. Sofía Vianney Gutiérrez Melchor for their contribution to this webpage.