Microbat or Megabat Trivia Quiz

Answer: insects

Most microbats are insectivores although some are carnivorous. Those few bats called carnivorous eat not only larger insects, like grasshoppers, but also small lizards and snakes.

A few microbats eat nectar while still fewer microbats, called "vampire bats", drink blood from livestock (horses, cattle) and other animals that are generally thin-skinned and passive. There is no record of a vampire microbat drinking the blood of a human.

There are many temperate locations around the world where microbats are found. They are, by far, the most commonly seen bat in the world.

Answer: a type of sonar which humans can't hear

Microbats can find both insects and their own location by using ultrasonics on higher wavelengths than humans hear. A microbat's ultrasonics cab go up to 100,000 - 150,000 kilohertz, while most humans only hear up to 20,000 kilohertz.

We generally do not hear the ultrasonics microbats use, and most sounds they use are also pitched much higher than other animals hear.

Answer: Yes

The use of echolocation is the primary way to identify a bat as a microbat, not a megabat.

Microbats have rather small eyes, and though they generally see about as well as a human, echolocation is how microbats are able to find the insects in their diets.

Echolocation not only assists the bats to eat flying insects while in flight, it also tells microbats where they are and where the rest of the bats around them are. Their use of echolocation is so keen they know, via echo, how to tell each other apart.

Answer: fruit

Most megabats eat fruit, such as mango, papaya, avocado, figs and other fruit, as well as a small amount of bark, twigs, flowers, and other plant material. A very few small megabats use flowers as their main food source, mostly the nectar.

The fruit diet of megabats, coupled with their frequently long flights to find fruit and their fast digestive systems, make megabats a principle pollinator in the tropical and sub-tropical areas where they live.

Answer: they use keen eyesight and smell

Megabats, unlike microbats, do not use echolocation, with very few exceptions. Thee use, or not of echolocation is a main difference between megabats and microbats.

Megabats have night-vision much keener than humans, and a sense of smell like a dog has. Both sight and smell are used to find fruit and each other.

Answer: yes, many sounds we can hear

Megabats make chirping, bird-like sounds, and clicks, honks, and bleats, with several variations of each sound. Megabats are very talkative and humans can hear them.

These bats often roost in trees together and a person can hear them 'converse'. Even a megabat that roosts alone makes noises we hear and will join others of its kind from time to time. They are very social animals.

Answer: usually smaller

Microbats are generally small and agile animals, able to eat insects on the wing. Microbat sizes are between 1+ inches to 6+ inches long (2.5 to 15 cm).

Some megabats are quite small, too. The smallest megabat in the world is called the spotted-wing fruit bat and adults weigh 13 grams (0.46 oz).

Most megabats are larger than microbats and some are a lot larger. For example, the great/giant flying fox fruit bat weighs over 3 lbs (1.45 kg) and has a wingspan over 5 ft (up to1.7 m).

Answer: True

A megabat is described as "dog-faced", which means it has a longer snout, bigger eyes, and generally smaller ears than microbats do. These larger features assist megabats in their search for food, and in relation to each other.

Microbats have a short snout and small eyes (though they see well), and their ears are bigger than a megabats. Microbat ears have a special 'flap' called a tragus that megabats do not have. Most scientists think the tragus is a main part of a microbat's echolocation skills.

Answer: they have an extra claw

Megabats have an extra claw located in a place that appears to be the inner part of their wings, but the wings are actually part of a bat's forearm.

This extra claw is the secondary way to tell megabats apart from microbats, the first being that megabats use no echolocation. Megabats use this second claw to cling to surfaces they use in order to eat their diet of mostly fruit.

Answer: yes, mostly through loss of habitat

Sadly and often true, human activity is the biggest threat to both megabats and microbats. Some easily frightened people think all bats suck blood, so microbats are at risk in some areas.

Risks for megabats are also in the tropics and sub-tropics where many megabats live. In some areas they are hunted for food or for sale.

It is the man-made causes of logging, mining, urban expansion, and global warming that create a lack of both the fruit sites and woodland trees where many megabats roost the major problem. The same human activities also eliminate many of the water sources, caves and empty buildings where microbats roost.