Stuff You Should Know - Selects: How Bats Work

Episode Date: July 8, 2023

They are creepy, sure, but they are also useful, cute and in great danger of extinction. Get a new lease on life from a new view of bats in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's just a few Chuck Bryant. I didn't know we were podcasting about Dolphin. That was my bat. Oh, I thought it was a dolphin. No, no, that was a bat. Well, the more you wearing your dolphin running shorts, that has nothing to do with bats

and everything to do with their marina. They probably still have this. Dolphin running shorts, what are you talking about? Yeah, I remember the little, like real runners, they still wear those shorts, and maybe it's all spandex now, like super tight. Okay.

But they used to be just like a little wispy piece of, but they were called Dolphin shorts. Well, I think that was the brand mhm uh... i wasn't familiar with that but you know things were you know the right gust of wind could reveal sure lots of things i know you're talking about like short shorts

you know real flimsy one real satiny flimsy wispy but i think uh... i think they were dolphin running shorts and by the way this this podcast is not sponsored by dolphin running shorts. And by the way, this podcast is not sponsored by dolphin running shorts. No. It's sponsored by the Bats of America.

That's right. Which I always have liked bats, but after reading this, I'm so much more in love with bats. Oh yeah, they're neat animals. It's amazing. And not just like, I learned a lot of stuff. I kind of knew about the echolocation and stuff like that

Actually, here's here's my impression of a bat echolocating Good huh because humans can't hear it. That's right. I just did it really great very nice Chuck if you are on the fence will not you because you've just stated that you're over the fence clearly in the bat yard. Probat. Probat. Me too. They never did anything to anybody on purpose, aside from some of them sucking your blood while you sleep.

Aside from that, it's super rare. Bats seem to be pretty great animals. And if you're on the fence about bats and you want to go over to the probat side, go on to YouTube and type in bat eating a banana. It's very cute. It's adorable. There's also baby bat burrito videos. They're wrapped up in a blanket, not a tortilla.

There's a lot of cute bat videos out there because there's a lot of cute bats. They're sure are, my friend. You might say, no, no, no, I've seen bats. They are as ugly as pure evil gets. Yeah. You're talking about what are called micro bats. The ones with the crazy nostrils that actually make you me gagged.

Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I think they're cute too. I mean, I get it because they definitely look like literary ghouls and fiends. But which makes you wonder, I wonder if fiends and ghouls and fiends. But which makes you wonder, I wonder if fiends and ghouls were modeled after those types of bats?

Oh, I'm sure. Oh, okay. I didn't realize it was so obvious. Well, no, I mean, it would have to, because that's a real thing and they look so much alike. Maybe no one had seen a bat. Oh, yeah.

And then they make gargos and they're like, what a coincidence. Or maybe a bat just died at the feet of an artist one day and he's like, oh man, I gotta cast this in clay. Right. And put it on my front doorstep. I know what you were driving at though. They are cute in their own really weird, uncanny way.

Sure. Yeah, but nothing like the flying fox. Those are legit cute. No, and actually this article needs to be updated, man. So bats are, there's actually bats are the only flying mammals we should say, they're very unique animals. Only flying mammals. Wait, what about the penguin?

Non-flying and a bird. Oh, it doesn't even come close. Gotcha. Bats are mammals. Yeah. And they're more closely related to humans than say like the fox or the rat or whatever that they're frequently described as being the flying version of.

And there's I think something like 1200 species of bats. That's a lot of bats species. And they all belong to the order chiroprtera, which means-wing, which we'll get to. And then bats typically are subdivided into two sub-orders. And it used to be mega Chi-Roptera and micro Chi-Roptera. Is that alright anymore? No, because science is specifically like taxonomy, used to be kind of dumb.

It was just based on appearance. And then once the field of genetics came along, they started like genetically testing things and realizing that it's not a really good way to categorize things. Like this gunk looks like a raccoon, but they're not the same thing. Right. So maybe they shouldn't be in the same order any longer. Yeah. This is the case with bats.

So it used to be based on their size, megabats and micro bats, or mega chiroptera and micro chiroptera. their size, megabats and micro-bats, or mega-kyro-kyro-terra and micro-kyro-terra. Now, because of genetic testing, some of the very small bats are now in the megabat order and vice versa. But those are still sub-orders. They are, but they renamed them to megabats and micro-bats. Oh, I got you. But so, for example, the long-tongued tongue fruit bat is considered a mega bat, but its wingspan

is only about 10 inches. Right. It's a little thing. Whereas if you look at the flying fox or the fruit bat, Asia, Africa, and Australia, those things are adorable and they are huge, like six foot wingspan on some of these bad boys. Yeah. And I mean, I think they're gorgeous.

I know. I think it's the wing just terrifies people. Oh yeah, because it looks like a cute little fuzzy fox and then he goes, Woo! Right. And then falls his wings. It envelops you and takes you to hell with it. Well, that's what it evokes, I think, is a cape

that something would wrap around you and suck your blood. Yeah, like a vampire. Oh, I wonder if vampires were invented independently of that. What is the cute little guy that um... The bumblebee bat? Yeah, I posted a picture of that fella on Facebook today. Just as a teaser, people didn't know that we're gonna do an episode on it just to get reactions. And most people are like, oh, that's super cute. And a lot of people are like, I still wouldn't touch that thing.

Well, that's a really good sensible thing. Like bats might be cute and all that, but they're also enormous reservoirs for diseases. They're like, yeah, top notch disease reservoirs for diseases that you and I can catch like Ebola in rabies Sure, and they think one of the reasons is because they and we'll talk about the citer But they're they're so comfortable with each other. They just huddle together right spreading disease on one another exactly I mean like epidemic disease didn't take hold among humans until we moved into cities and even in cities like we're still not Elbow to Elbow yeah figuratively we're still not elbow to elbow. Yeah. Figuratively we are, but not in reality.

Bats are literally elbow to elbow in their colonies. So disease just spreads anywhere it wants among them. Yeah, however, about the rabies scare, they are carriers of rabies, but not like people think, I think less than one half of one percent of bats are rabid. One half point five percent. And you're more way more likely to get rabies from raccoons and skunks and other. Oh, okay. Well, there you go. That puts an imperfective, because I like pet any raccoon I see. Maybe I should stop doing that.

You should probably stop doing that. They bite me a lot. Yeah. You should check it IC. Maybe I should stop doing that. You should probably stop doing that. They bite me a lot. Yeah. You should check it out. Who would be a shit? So yes, you said how many species, about 1200, and aside from varying in size, like you said, just a look of them, like the flying fox looks,

like we said, like a little fox has that long snout, looks traditionally like a mammal, has smaller ears, and those little scary looking guys have those huge ears, and that nose that makes you me gag. So here's the thing, I believe that even that is up in the air now that they've started doing genetic testing. What is? Like the classification based on looks as well.

Oh, yeah, sure. It's just that taxonomy is really up for grabs right now. It's a really exciting time. Let's say, generally speaking then, bro. One of the other distinctions, too, typically, that divides these two sub-orders chuck is what they eat. Yeah. The micro-bats tend to be carnivorous.

Yes. So it includes vampire bats, but vampire bats are not all bats or vampire bats, even if they're carnivorous. No. Most bats just the insects if they're carnivorous. Yeah, like mosquitoes. But mega bats, including the big ones with the six foot wingspan, the flying fox, I think you said.

Those are just hippies, they just eat plants. That's it, like literally nectar and spread pollen. Yeah, it's pretty great, like birds. Why is that funny? It's pretty great, yeah, it is. All right, let's talk a little bit about the wing because this is where my learning really started here in researching this. The German word for bats is Fliida moves.

I expect more from you than that. Yeah, yeah, really? Yeah, I expected you to put on like a metal hat with like a spike coming out of the top. That translates into flying mice. Yes, for the curious. And people will say that because a bat does look kind of like a flying mouse or a flying rodent of some sort. But like I said, they're much more closely related to humans. Yeah, and you also might think they're like birds, cause they fly around.

Not so. When you look at the wing structure of a bat and a bird, very different. Actually, if you look at a human, if you held your arms out to your side with your elbows bent and your finger spread, and then basically shook your hands. Yeah, like you were gonna do jazz hands, exactly.

And then imagine that there was a webbed membrane called a How do you pronounce it pat a pat a gym? Patted giant pat a giant. I don't have one of those two. Those are the wings. It's a pagine the flesh Yeah, there you go Yeah, the flesh of the wing if you held your hands out and did jazz hands But it was all webbed and connected that is way more what a batswing and it looks like in functions like than a birdswing. Right, so a birdswing has rigid bones in it, right? Yeah.

And the muscles that control the wings are located basically at what would amount to your armpits. Yeah, like a socket. So, like, just do the chicken dance real quick and think about what you're doing. Yes. Right?

You're not, there's not really any movement in the actual arm. It's all at the shoulder doing. Yes. Right? You're not, there's not really any movement in the actual arm, it's all at the shoulder joint. Yeah. Same with birds, with bats, that is not the case. Because they're basically like winged hands, which is the reason their order is named that, right? Yes.

They can basically swim through the air, which allows them to dive bomb and turn and twist and go up and down and go after these insects that can fly really fast, which constitute most of their prey. Oh, yeah. Much more easily, and they're much more depth at maneuvering mid-air than your average bird is. Yes, absolutely. Like, a thousand times, there's no science behind that.

I would say even like 1500 times. There's no science behind that. I would say you in like 1500 times. Okay. Well, I mean if there's if we're going without science, let's just say like a million times more. Yeah a gazillion They have little thumbs that extend out of the wing as a in the form of little small claw and this is what they use to climb trees It's really neat how they fly. I guess we'll go ahead and let the cat out of the bag They don't have enough lift with their wings to take off, like sitting on a branch, like a bird. They don't have strong enough legs to run, run, run, run, down a runway and take off. They hang upside down and drop and then start flying. Right.

They have small withered little legs that they basically drag behind them as they crawl. Yeah, and so that's what they climb trees. They climb up to a high launch point. Right. And we'll get to the hanging later because that's super cool too. And then just fall and start flying.

Right. And that's what bats do. That's what bats do. And that's how bats fly. Scientifically speaking, they believe that bats used to not fly, and thanks to natural selection, the ones who could leap further and further from tree to tree were more successful, and that eventually led to that potagia being formed. Yeah, they could fly.

Kind of like lemurs or flying squirrels or something like that, right? So like one of them was born with an extra skin flap and everyone was like, you freak and then it flew. And they were like, wow. Who's the freak now? Exactly, look at all these insects I got. Yeah.

So they think that the bat evolved, like you said, from a tree dwelling mammal, which we likely did as well, which is why we're related to bats, most likely. We share some sort of single common ancestor that dwelt in trees. And probably bats evolved somewhere around 100 million years ago is what they believe. But I think the oldest fossils they found are like 50 million in change. Yeah, and these fossils that they found in Wyoming Show that the wings are there, but the ears are not developed which suggests that flying Developed among bats before echo location did which has been a long-standing debate. Yeah, they did echo like Location come first deflying come first, did flying come first,

or did they both evolve at the same time? And it turns out flying was first. Nice. Well, right after this break, we will talk about that echolocation. How about that? Let's. How rude Tanner Redos is the Full House rewatch podcast you've been waiting for! Each week, get together with iconic characters Stephanie Tanner and Kimmy Gibbler, also known

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Alright, Josh. We talked about the wing structure, makes them able to hunt really well, but it's really a one-two punch along with their echolocation or echolocative abilities. I think that's the word, is that a word? Yeah, right. So you can maneuver all day long, but if you can't find your prey, you're just doing a weird dance, right there.

Right, exactly. You're just showing off. And the way that bats find their prey, there's a common myth-chuck that blind is a bat. That bats can't see. Absolutely, you're on true. Most bats have like perfectly good vision. Yeah, like exceptional vision, even.

Yeah. There was a study, some German study, I believe, that found that bats have rods and cones, which means they can see color in the daylight as well as like black and white Stuff sure old movies sure. Yeah, um before Ted Turner got his hands on oh boy, and I never went anywhere It really didn't but now it's like they're it's done now Wizard of Oz is like gaudy As gaudy is like the the terracotta army originally. Now Wizard of Oz is like, gaudy. As gaudy is like the terracotta army originally was.

Well, no, Wizard of Oz always was both, because when they get to Oz, it's color. Oh yeah, you're right. Yeah. What was, oh, gone with the wind. I think he did colorize it. He did colorize it. Okay.

Anyway, can you tell it's been a little while since we've done this? No, I think it's great. I can. It's also really hot in here. It's getting hotter by the second. The more I stall the hotter it gets. Allow me to continue.

Okay. So bats echo locate as well as see. And again, I'm not quite sure I couldn't find this chuck, but I think micro bats might be the only type to echolocate. Oh, really? I don't think all bats do. The reason why is because if you're hippie, pollen-eating herbivore bat, you don't need to echolocate your food.

You can just fly around until you run into a flower. Yeah, then smash it and then just lean over and suck it. Right. There's some nectar. Okay. and smash it and then just lean over and suck it, dry it. There's some nectar. Okay, if you are seeking flying insects as your prey, then yeah, you better be able to echolocate. And we can actually echolocate. There's a man who is sightless,

who can echolocate, and he's a human being. He is? Yeah, I can't remember what, maybe a men's health article on him, like this dude just taught himself to echolocate to the column Batman. Probably yeah, I don't remember that much. Well, if you've ever been to a canyon, let's say a grand canyon, okay, let's say the grand canyon, sure.

And you boom your voice out there, please don't say hello or is anyone out there? Those are, you know, come up with something better than that. Better than Pink Floyd lyrics? No. If it's in that context, then it passes. Okay. Yeah. Wait, what would you recommend for an echo?

Oh man. What's your go-to echo words? Definitely not echo. I think echo is great. It's hilarious. Definitely not hello. You know, I would say, I would say, now batting for the New York Yankees. Many moto. Many moto. That's what I would do. You could also do kaka kaka. Do they chicken dance? Oh, yeah, that'd be good. So whatever you choose to go with, next visit to the canyons, you will hear that echo come back to you and

it's basically the same way that bats use except instead of echoing off of a canyon wall, it's echoing off of a mosquito. Sure, yeah. Or whatever. Yeah, when you make sound waves and it travels and it hits that canyon wall, it comes back to you, right? Yeah. And bets do the same thing, but like you said, they're bouncing off of a mosquito or some other flighted bug that it eats. And just from standard echolocation, the bat can identify, oh, there's a mosquito there. Like all this other stuff, all the other sound that I just put out there came back at a much slower rate than this little spot did. And that spot is probably a mosquito, but it gets way more detailed than that.

Oh yeah. Basically, bats' echolocation is picked up, and they're still not entirely certain, like what kind of receptors the bat has. I mean, it's apparently all oral. Yeah. But in the bat's brain, it creates what would be about equivalent to our visual field. We see light bouncing off of stuff, and I can tell roughly how far away you are and where

you are and what position you're facing or what direction you're going, all through light waves. Yeah, in an instant, we don't have to think about that. Right, see it, and it's there. The BATS not calculating all of this. It's just getting this information and it's automatically putting it together in what is amount again to like a visual,

a visible, visiospatial field. Wow, right? And so it knows there's a mosquito, it's about this big, it's about yay big, it's traveling at this rate in this direction and it's like right below me and it goes and gets the mosquito Yeah, all from rather than picking up light waves creating a sound wave and listening for

It's echo. Yeah, that's echo location. It's amazing. So and also I should say Chuck. It's really good that this is ultrasonic Because the some of them go up to like 120 decibels, which is the equivalent of having a smoke detector like a couple inches from your ear. That is not fun. No, it shatter your life. Yeah. All right, so let's talk about the different parts. They will determine the distance of the mosquito by how long it takes that noise to return.

You and I could do that with simple math at a canyon. We could actually calculate how far away that other wall is with math. You and the canyon. Location, they can determine where it is and how big it is and what direction it's moving by. Literally, if the mosquito sound bounces back and hits the right ear before the left ear, and it's going to be the right, that's pretty easy.

And then they have all these little complex folds within the ears, not just like a big dumb human ear, like we have. Lots of little folds that will help indicate its vertical position as well. So if they know it's coming from above, it'll sound different in the ear than if it's below. Right. And again, to the bat, all this is happening automatically. It's brain is putting all this information together. And the bat knows there's a mosquito right below it. That's right. The size is determined by the intensity of that co-sumthing larger will have more intense

echo. So that's a big fat mosquito that just feasted on Josh. So it's got lots of delicious blood. Tons of blood, delicious blood. And they also use the Doppler effect chuck to determine whether something is going away from it or toward it. That's right. Remember the Doppler effect I've mentioned it before and got it totally wrong.

Yeah. Let me try again. It's tough. You ready? Yeah. So the wavelength of something is set. It's determined. Right? Yes. But if something is coming near you, that wavelength has to be compressed in a shorter space. Yes. So therefore the frequency, the pitch increases. If something's traveling away from you, it has a lot more space between it and you to fill up that same wavelength. That same, yeah, the same wavelength. So the frequency, the pitch goes lower.

That's the Doppler effect. Right, I think it's the Doppler effect. Why do I feel you're gonna get email the people like, oh Josh, so close. I'm really practical. But this one more thing. So that is how they determine distance, location, size, direction, and direction. Right. Amazing. And also the actual sound that they're making when they echolocate, a lot of bats fly around with their mouths open. Yeah. And they look like they're just kind of slack jawed

adiocals. Well, it turns out they're making their echolocation squeaks the whole time. Again, it's just ultrasonic, which is above the human threshold of hearing, right? So, it's squeaking the whole time. It's not just sitting there with its mouth a gate. And some bats also, especially the micro bats that have the crazy nostrils that make you me gag. Those actually will echolocate and generate the sound through their nose. Oh yeah, that's right.

Yeah, that's what they look that way. They're like little speakers. So Chuck, I think we nailed echolocation, don't you? Oh yes. And the Doppler effect maybe? Put that one to bed. And we will talk more about bats, including their little families that they stay in right after this. Hi, I'm Deli Wilde, and I want to invite you to listen to my newest podcast.

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as they take an in-depth look back at life in and around the Tanner home, from the very, very beginning. So if you think you know everything there is to know about Full House, how rude. We'll be reliving every moment with you and we'll be joined by our Full House family, including all your favorites from 192 episodes.

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So you talked a little bit about bats and how they loved to huddle together. And it depends on the kind of bat. The bloodthirsty bats, vampire bats, they actually tend to roost in small little colonies or solitarially, I believe sometimes, in like really hard to reach places. Like the lost boys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like your fireplace. Yeah. I had to battle a bat once in a fireplace. Oh yeah. Smoke it out. No, I didn't smoke it. I put on a leather coat over another coat. Loves. Dude, I always like smoke it. I put on a leather coat over another coat. Loves. Dude, I always love how you suit up before you do any like battle with nature.

Longer your bass getting a broom. And I lost. But they, they, they'll be by themselves usually. That's a good giveaway that you have encountered a blood sucking bat. That's a good giveaway that you have encountered a blood sucking bat. The hippie herbivore bats, those tend to congregate in enormous colonies, some often composed of millions of bats. Millions. Pretty amazing. You mentioned that they do all this feeding and activity at dawn dusk and overnight

Yeah, because they will get eaten by hawks and falcons and things during the day and other predators too, so they like to stay away during the day and and hide out like you said. Yeah, the caves dark places. Sure under bridges, we'll talk about Austin in a bit. Right, hawks don't typically go into caves, they hang out in trees, so bats go off and spend their days sleeping in caves. Upside down.

Upside down, and you were saying earlier that you were excited about talking about that, and I understand why. Yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, the reason they hang upside down is not to look creepy. It's because that's the way that they launch themselves to fly. Right. And when they're sleeping upside down, they're able to sleep. You would think that, well yeah, if you're like hanging on to something upside down, you get tired.

Yeah, you've got to really tense your muscles. Not with the bats. You would, if you were doing that, this is the fact of the show for me. I think you should take it. Well, you're right. If I was hanging upside down, I would not last very long because... Wouldn't last a second. A, I would be clinch... Well, we couldn't even hang upside down because we'd be using our hands. And all the blood would rush to your head too and you just pass out.

It'd be really uncomfortable. That's right. But what would happen if we were to try to do that, or like to try to do a pull-up, let's say, is we would, you know, clinch our fist around something which contracts muscles which are attached to your fingers by tendons. It's all one big connection, series of connections, right, to hang on to something, to class something or to grab that coffee cup.

Exactly, and you're exerting energy by contracting your muscle, right? That's right. With a bat, that's not the case at all. No, their tendons are only connected to the upper body, no muscle involved whatsoever. Right, so when they're hanging upside down, their upper body is pulling down on their tendons,

which means their claws close, onto whatever they're hanging from. Yeah, it's like, it's gravity coupled with just a reaction, like literally a physical reaction from pulling that bat will make those claws close. Exactly. So it requires no energy whatsoever, right? Or talons, I guess we should say, right? Yeah. But it requires no energy. None whatsoever.

And bats will actually, they'll die in that position sometimes. Yeah, so what they do is they'll fly up to this thing. They will initially clasp it with their claws and then relax. And when they relax, they hang, which makes them clamp down really hard. And like you said, if they die hanging there, they will stay hanging there. And they can go to sleep. That's where they sleep. So one of the reasons why it's so important

that a bat doesn't have to expend any energy while it's upside down is because they're mammals, which means that they are warm-blooded, which means that they regulate their own temperature internally, right? Which requires a lot of energy. That puts bats at a particular disadvantage because they fly and it requires a ton of energy.

Mammals are not designed to fly, to generate that energy needed to fly. Bats can do it, but to do it, they have to enter what's called the state of torpor every day. And basically, while they're hanging upside down, they get super, super sleepy, and they get so sleepy that their metabolism starts to slow. And their internal temperature falls and becomes about an equilibrium with the external

temperature. So they go from warm blooded to essentially cold blooded during a single day. Yeah, like David Blaine might. Yes, if he was preparing for some weird stunt. Yeah. They're controlling their own internal temperature and their own metabolic rate.

Right, so while they're doing this, when their metabolism slows, they're using up less energy, which means that they're conserving it for when they fly later on when they go hunt. That's right. Which is pretty awesome. Yeah, they can actually even hibernate some bats.

Yes. If they're in a region where it calls for it, or they may just do like birds and migrate to warmer climbs. There's a lot of different bats and a lot of different things that bats do. Is that going to be our little tag maybe this episode? All right, well let's talk a little bat. It's called this fact in fiction since that's what this section is called in the article. Pretty original.

Like we said, there are leathery wings and their weird faces, and there are resemblance to ghouls and demons, make them vilified, but bats are our friends because they eat tons and tons of insects. Literally tons. Yeah. What was the stat on that? There's 1200 mosquitoes in an hour. One bat.

That's a little brown bat in North America. It's the most common North American bats species. 1200 mosquitoes in an hour. One bat. That's a little brown bat in North America. It's the most common North American bat species. 1200 mosquitoes in an hour. Did she say, who cares? There's trillions and trillions of mosquitoes. It does not matter. Well, there are a lot of bats. That's right. There's a bat cave in Brocking Cave or Bracken Cave, Texas that has 20 million bats. It's a colony. And every night they eat 200 tons of insects. 200 tons. And a lot of those insects are crop ruining insects.

So farmers frequently take their hats off and wave to the bats. Hello, hello. Yeah, they do. And something of a salute when the bats fly by. Yeah. Have you ever seen a farmer do that to a bat? Yeah, he did. So really, he's pumping around up in one hand and waving at the bats and the bats fly by. Have you ever seen a farmer do that to a bat? Yeah, he's a really pumping round up in one hand

and waving at the bats and the other. It'll bring a little tear to your eye. They are plant pollinators, like we said. They will go in and gather nectar and when they do this, they get pollen on their bodies. When they fly away, they spread that pollen. Right. So specifically, they're pollinators of bananas, figs, mangoes,

cashews, and agave. So if you are hammered on tequila right now, thank a bat, thank a bat. And you mentioned that colony in Texas in Austin, right? Yeah, under the Congress Avenue bridge, very famous spot to, in fact, it's a big tourist attraction now. They've embraced. So they bring in tourists dollars and two. They pollinate, they eat pest bugs, and they bring in the tourists. Yeah. I think some of them are Uber drivers as well.

So they're just trying to eke out of living. Yep, exactly. What else? Let's talk about the guano. You know, that is. It's poop. That's bat poop. And Guano is a very rich and nitrogen and is a great fertilizer. And not only that, but at one point, the US Army, and even further back the southern army, the Confederate army, I believe they're called, used the collected Batguano to use his gunpowder and explosives. They extracted the salt peter from it.

Crazy. And I had no idea. Yeah. It actually extended the Civil War because once all their fortifications were destroyed, they literally went and collected Guano from Bat caves to keep making bombs right around about bombs, but Gunpowder and again, it is also like a top notch fertilizer that's still in use today like you can buy back guano at the average nursery probably And not it wasn't back guano, but bird guano too has been used and wars have been fought over it. It's such an effective

fertilizer and power energy source that Yeah, it's pretty interesting. So go read 1491 or 1493. I can't remember talks about this You tell on the on the scarier side though. you did mention vampire bats and they do feed on blood, but this article is keen to point out that they are not bloodthirsty man hunters. They will...

No, they're man stalkers. They'll eat a cow. When I say eat a cow, they won't eat a cow. No, the you cow didn't even, you know, it didn't hurt the cow that much, right? No, unless the cow contracts an infection or something from it. The vampire bats usually need about one to two tablespoons of blood a night, which you can easily get from a cow without any harm to the cow as far as blood loss goes, right?

Sure. And the cow typically doesn't even know what's going on, because the vampire bats have very sharp teeth that don't really make much of a sensation going in. And the saliva has an anti-coagulant in it, so the blood just kind of trickles out and keeps coming. And then the vampire bat flies away. What's interesting about them though is they don't fly onto you, they fly near you, and then they stalk you on all fours, which makes it super creepy.

Yeah, even though I love bats, a crawling bat with those wings is a little creepy. Coming to suck your blood. Yeah. Or, no, it's not sucking blood. Remember, it's an anti-quagulant, so it just opens up a vein. It's laughing, laughing up blood. It laughs up blood. Apparently they also have a cool little organ in their nose.

It's like a heat sensing organ, so they find like where the blood is closest to the skin Oh really then go wow and then go Let's talk about reproduction for a second They reproduce typically only once a year or bat reproduction. Oh, you thought it was just like us. Mm-hmm. I thought you were about to sing salt and pepper. Ha-ha-ha.

They reproduce typically only once a year, and that makes them... It's tough. There are some of the least producing mammals in the world. Yeah, they produce one baby a year. Yeah. On average, some can reproduce more. Yeah. But, that didn't happen that much. They're called on average, some can reproduce more. Yeah.

But, that didn't happen that much. They're called pups, which is very cute. Uh-huh. A pup weighs 25% of the mother's body weight, which is remarkable. The area because they often nurse while the mother's flying around. Yeah, so that'd be like 120 pound woman having a 30 pound baby. It just attached to her while she's flying. Exactly.

Yeah. woman having a 30-pound baby. Just attached to her while she's flying. Exactly. They live, like we said, in large colonies. So it's not hard to find a mate. But once the females get pregnant, they tend to form a maternal colony, a maternity colony, within the colony. It's pretty neat. Yeah, and apparently, bats are very altruistic. Like, they've recorded acts of bats going and bringing food back for bats

who are sick in the colony. Yeah. That's pretty neat. That is pretty. You don't find that very often in nature. No, not even with man. Right. In many cases.

Yeah. So they'll form that little maternity colony, which is super sweet, because the men don't really stick around and help raise the young evidently. They just do their thing and they're gone. And apparently the colonies are meant to hang out with men and women to hang out with women anyway. It's like an eighth grade dance in there. Absolutely.

So what happens is the women care for their offspring for a while, but they don't have a whole lot of time to do it about six weeks to months, and then the bat is fully independent and can fly on its own, which is great. And this is the second fact of the podcast to me. The female bat is so smart, they can delay their fertilization based on the best time to have a baby bat. Really? Yeah, so they can have the sex in the fall

and hold that sperm and release the sperm to meet the eggs like six months later in the spring. Wow. Isn't that amazing? That is very neat. They've learned to actually control their own cycle. Have some serious willpower. Well, they want to survive, you know?

They are ultimate survivors. You know, bats have a real problem facing them right now, Chuck, with white nose fungus. I know, and this is sort of, well, it's not only a threat, but it's a bit of a mystery, isn't it? I have like, why it's so widespread all of a sudden? Well, it's just spreading like wildfire in part because bat colonies are so huddled and close together.

Sure. From what I understand, it's just the ones that hibernate that are having the problem, because this white nose fungus, it is like a, it's a fungus that grows on their nose. And apparently the itch makes the bats that are hibernating wake up. And when they wake up, they're in big trouble

because an animal that hibernates has just enough energy stored and make it through the hibernation period. If they wake up and blow a bunch of energy like bringing their metabolism and body heat back up to normal levels and then try to go back in the hibernation, they'll starve to death before the winners over. So this white fungus grows on their noses and other parts,

but typically on the nose and wakes them up and then they spend all their energy and end up dying. Or they die from exposure to these winter temperatures of that kind of thing. That's awful. Yeah, and apparently it is really deadly. Like some hibernaculous, which is like a hibernating colony, have like a 90 to 100% mortality rate

when white noise fungus gets a whole of them. Holy cow. Yeah, and it's a real problem and they don't know how to stop it. Well, another real problem is in places, some parts of South America, when there's a rabies, fear going around, like an outbreak in the town,

they will bomb a cave full of bats. Blow it up. They will blow it up and let's say there's 100,000 bats in there and 0.5% of those have rabies. So that's 500 rabid bats. They're killing off 100,000. And then they're like, what's up with all these mosquitoes? Why do I have malaria?

Well, either that or the bats they go after, the ones they can easily find in caves, which are the ones that pollinate, they're not even vampire bats, so they're not getting rabies from them anyway. So they're killing a bunch of bats that aren't spreading rabies at all. Well, I mean, and leaving the ones that actually are. Right, but most pollinating bats don't come into contact with humans. Exactly. The vampire bats are the ones you would have to really worry about catching rabies from. Yeah, yeah. So they're not even getting the ones that are spreading

the rabies. Just misinformation. There's one more threat from humans that started to come to shape and fruition, but didn't fully back in World War II. Did you hear about bat bombs? Nope. So there was a dude in the US who had this great idea and it was

attaching incendiary bombs to bats and then releasing the bats on Japan. That's a pretty good idea. So this guy apparently had the ear of, and I've read this in an Atlantic article, this guy had the ear of Eleanor Roosevelt and it ended up becoming like an army research project that went far enough along that there were mishaps like an airplane hangar blew up because some bats got released prematurely. A general's car blew up for the same reason, and it almost happened and then they just dropped it. What did Eleanor Roosevelt have to do with it?

Well she was the first lady at the time. Well I know, but since when the first lady's not working with education. Well, she was the first lady at the time. Well, I know, but since when the first lady's not like, work with education and nutrition, like, when would she like, how about bombats? Eleanor Roosevelt definitely was at seated at the right hand of the seat of power. She was sharp lady. Crazy. Yeah. Bat bombs. Well, she wasn't that sharp. She thought that was a good idea. I have the impression that she was doing it as a favor, like getting this guy on trade to the army. The war room. Yeah. So that's Eleanor Rose. Felt you got anything else? Nope. If you want to know more about Bats, you can type

that word into the search bar at howstuffworks.com. And again, go look up bat eating in banana. It's so adorable. Yeah, or the little baby bat breeders. They have like a nurseries with a bunch of them, like nursing on bottles and wrapped up in little swaddles. So cute, very cute. And since I said adorable, it's time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this one of the 10 people that saw us perform in Washington Square Park.

Oh, yeah, the 10. Yep, so they get in any one of you. If you email us, I'll read it on the ear. All of them are missing time. Long time listener and fan here guys, I introduced my boyfriend to the podcast as well. You saved us many hours of boredom on road trips. Have to say the recent episode about how Nazis attempted to invade Long Island of Florida was one of my favorites ever. We got a lot of great response from that one. Yeah, by the way. I lived in New York City for eight years now and spent a

lovely summer days on a mag and set beach. I'm against it. I'migants. Geez. So the thought of a U-boat rolling up there and depositing German spies with plans to attack New York is particularly chilling. My boyfriend and I attended your show in Washington Square Park and your big live show in New York City this summer. And the latter is why I'm writing. I felt you should know as a result of the topic you chose for the show. You cost me several nights of kitchen clean-up duty.

Before the show, we were grabbing drinks next door and decided to make things interesting with a little bit as to what the topic would be. We came up with six possible categories. We thought it could fall into biology, geography, history, physics, current events, and political social. It could have fallen into three of those. Yeah, and we're not going to reveal it here by the way people, because we're touring that same show.

We got at least one more go around with it. In this fall, and so if you have seen the show, we're going to say this again and again. Don't come again, unless you just want to. Yeah. Some people, you know, like follow the grateful dead or fish around, see the same show. No, they play a different show every night, that's why they follow them around. Well, not completely different every night. Pretty much different.

That's impossible. No, I mean, they play a different show every night. Well, they might alter songs, but there's not that you don't have 3,000 songs. They have a lot of songs. These people see them hundreds of nights in a row. Yeah. All right.

Well, maybe we have some stuff heads that want to follow us around. Yeah, maybe stuff. They're all like driving around in bands. Yeah. We mix our show up a little bit. Sure. All right. I think that's a good public announcement though. Like, yes. What you just did. So we scribbled these down on an Appkin, did the Draft Style selection, went back and forth picking categories, had a feeling I was confident with my chances. For the moment you announced the topic, blank, I knew I'd lost. He had political, social, and current events. So that's a bit of a hint.

Yes. It's not biology. Anyway, guys, we really enjoy the live shows and hope you come back to New York soon. And that is from Natalie Brightbach and her boyfriend, Hagen. Really? Yeah. Hagen? H-A-G-A-N.

Hagen? I would go with Hagen. All right. I would say it should be Hagen. And if they got married, he should take her last name and be Hagen Brightbach. That's a good one. Yeah. That's a great name. That sounds like there's umlas all over the place.

All over. Well, if you want to get in touch with us to let us know how great you thought our show is or how excited you are about seeing our show, we would like to hear from you. You can tweet to us at syskpodcast. You can join us on Facebook.com. Slash stuff you should know.

You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.house.orgstuffworks.com, and as always, join us at our home on the web, StuffYouShouldNo.com. StuffYouShouldNo is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey everybody, are you ready for a brand new podcast that you had no idea existed? I'm Roy Scovol. And I'm Daniel van Kirk and it's the Penn Pals podcast.

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