Bats in Cueva de la Pileta

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For my science project in Spain, I chose to write about bats. I was truly inspired while we were venturing into the depths of the cave in Ronda. The cave we visited was called cueva de la pileta. The cave has some interesting stories behind it, including stories about bats. I knew that I wanted to do echolocation. I decided to not only write about echolocation, but also write about different species of bats.

Bats, are mammals from the Chiroptera order. The bats forelimbs and form webbed wings, make them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. Unlike flying squirrels, bats can fly for long distances, while the flying squirrel can only glide short distances. There are about 1,240 different species of bats. These bat species are broken up into to different suborders, the less specialized and largely fruit-eating megabats, and the highly specialized and echolocating microbats. close to 70% of bats are insectivores, this means the bats are carnivores that primarily base their diet off of insects. Almost all of the rest are frugivores. Frugivores only eat fruit. There are several different species that consume other species rather than insects and fruit, such as The Fish Eating Bat, also known as Myotis vivesi. Myotis vivesi is found very rarely in California and the Gulf of Mexico. There is one hematophagous species of bat. This bat feeds of of blood hence the name Vampire Bat. The Vampire Bat feeds off of mammal blood, occasionally including humans. Not only are bats awesome, they perform vital ecological tasks, such as pollinating flowers and spreading fruit seeds. The largest bat species is the giant golden-crowned flying fox. The giant golden-crowned flying fox can weigh up to 4 lbs, and have a wingspan o...

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...oid self deafening. The bat then uses the doppler effect to tune the echo back into its range. The doppler effect applies to objects in motion, such as a car passing by. As the car approaches the frequency of the sound is higher than the sound being emitted by the car, as the car passes the frequency is the exact same, and then the frequency gets lower as the car drives away. Bats use this to their advantage so that they can locate their prey. The doppler effect is used in radar guns as well. The bat can also use this to find how quickly their prey is moving. Because bats hunt at night to reduce the competition with birds and other flying creatures, the bat has a very good sense of smell as well as hearing. Bats can find moths by hearing the frequency of their beating wings. This allows bats to locate moths without the use of echolocation.

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