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Bats

Last updated: 07 May 2008

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There are known to be around 900 species of bats in the world, but only about 15 of these live in Britain.

Bats navigate through the skies via a method called echolocation, where they send a series of high-pitched clicks and navigate by listening to how long it takes for the sound to come back.

Indigenous British species include Pipistrelle, brown long-eared, greater horseshoe, whiskered and serotine. They are extremely manoeuvrable, even at low speed, which makes them very effective insect predators.

In Wales bats are essentially nocturnal. They become sluggish in winter, hibernating in roof spaces, hollow trees and dark caves.

Their most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals in the world naturally capable of flight.


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