Learn to Fly Trivia Quiz

Answer: Falling to the ground

Most baby bats die because they fall from their very high cave roost down to the ground. If the drop does not kill them, the flesh eating insects that live in the bat guano will. Therefore, a bat must learn to fly as quickly as possible.

Answer: Kitti's hog-nosed bat

Generally, the smaller the bat, the sooner it will learn to fly. The Kitti's hog-nosed bat is also known as the bumblebee bat, and has the distinction of being the smallest bat in the world. It is about one and a half inches in length and weighs only seven hundredths ounces.

The giant golden-crowned flying-fox is the largest, with a wingspan of nearly five feet, and can weigh up to three pounds! The bumblebee bat is considered a microbat, whereas the giant golden-crowned flying-fox is a megabat. Typically, microbats learn to fly in about six to eight weeks, but the megabats take up to four months to mature into adulthood and be able to fly! It is also interesting to note that microbats use echolocation, while megabats do not (with a few exceptions). Also, most megabats eat fruit, pollen, or nectar, while most microbats eat insects, with the exception of the vampire bat, which eats blood. Bats are generally harmless, so don't be afraid if you see one flying above your head!

Answer: Mother

Only the mother bat takes care of her young. Usually, a bat will give birth to only one pup at a time. After mating, the father leaves, and the mother is left to bring up the pup until it is almost an adult. The pup is not ready to fly until nearly fully grown, so it must rely on its mother until that time comes.

Answer: Skin on the wing

The patagium is the sensitive membrane covering the bat's wings. It is the skin that creates the wings, and it can tear easily. A baby bat's patagium is not very well developed early in life, but as it ages, the patagium grows and strengthens. Eventually, the wings will have developed enough that the bat may actually fly.

Answer: Early summer

Mating is very unusual between bats. Sometimes a male bat will mate with up to 30 females while they are hibernating in the winter months. The female bat, then, holds the sperm until a better time, usually around June, and then fertilizes the egg. The baby will then develop, and the mother will give birth at the best time possible; usually around May or June, when the fruit, insects, pollen, etc, is the most abundant.

Answer: Yes

Most bat species give birth to only one pup a year. Twins are usually very rare, except in the very few species that give birth to twins regularly. Some species give birth to one or two pups twice a year. However, the most a mother bat can have in her "little litter" is four.

A bat cannot have more than four. Having four pups is incredibly rare, and, just like a human having octuplets, it is unlikely that all four pups will survive birth. Baby bats will be born premature, and they will be very small.

Answer: Pups will be weaned faster

Megabats generally have pups 12% of their body size, and microbats give birth to pups about a quarter (25%) of their body size. That would be like an average woman giving birth to a 35 pound child! The reason for giving birth to such large pups serves a great purpose; weaning times are far less.

A bat needs to grow up and eat solid food quickly, and as soon as the bat can fly, it is time to move on to solids. The bigger the pup starts out, the less time it will take for it to actually be able to fly.

Answer: They huddle up together in the roost

When the mother bat needs to feed at nighttime, after her pup has been weaned, she drops him off in a creche, which is sort of like baby bat daycare, but with no guardians. When the mother returns, she goes to the creche, remembering the general location where she left her pup, and, from that point, she can smell her own baby and listen for its unique squeak. Like giraffes' spots, every squeak is different.

The baby bat can also hold on to its mother's stomach if they need to switch roosts. But it hardly ever rides with her while feeding.

Answer: They are equal

Bats generally give birth to an equal amount of males as they do females. So, in a harem of 100 female bats, if they all gave birth, you could expect around fifty males and fifty females.

Answer: Spread their fingers apart and flap just their fingers

Birds fly by flapping their entire forearm. Bats, however, spread out their long, skinny fingers and, instead of flapping their entire arm, they use only their digits.

An interesting fact about bats: there are 1,100 species worldwide. Though they are the only mammals that fly, they makes up about 1/5 of all mammal species on earth!