Bats have long been the focus of fascination, and sometimes fear: they move faultlessly through the darkness and spend the day hanging upside down in gloomy caverns and cracks – most at home where humans are least comfortable. Bats also represent a hugely important, numerous and varied group, accounting for 20% of all mammal species worldwide. Covering their biodiversity, ecology and natural history, A Miscellany of Bats offers a hoard of insights into the lives of these creatures.
For over a quarter of a century Brock Fenton and the late Jens Rydell collaborated on projects involving bats. Here they bring together a collection of stories and anecdotes about bat research, brought to life by stunning photographs of these animals in action. Key topics include flight and echolocation, diet and roosting habits, and the complex social lives of bats. Jens and Brock also address issues of conservation and the interactions between bats and people, ranging from matters of disease to bats’ role as symbols, and our fixation with vampire bats. They explore how echolocation and flight shape batkind, from their appearance to where they go and why. Overall, this book is an entertaining and personal vision of bats’ central place in the universe. More than 150 species are covered.
Tabella dei contenuti
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introducing bats
Wings and size
Blind as a bat
Catching and identifying bats
Marking and tagging
Brock’s initiation
Jens’ start
Box: What on Earth?
2. Bat wings and flight
Wing anatomy
White wings
How fast do bats fly?
Drinking
Flying antics
Box: Colour in bats
3. Seeing with sound
The perils of generalization
Basic echolocation
Why echolocate?
Echolocation and the faces of bats
Box: Beam control and bite power
4. Echolocation: a window onto bat behaviour
Biologists as eavesdroppers on bats
Insect prey
Bat communication
Air traffic control
Box: Echolocation and foraging
5. What bats eat, part 1
Learning how much a bat consumes
Some bats eat birds
Versatility
What insects do bats eat?
Specialized hunting
Trawling
Box: Diets of bats
6. What bats eat, part 2
Fruit-eating species
Bats and flowers
Box: The curious case of bananas
7. Vampire bats
8. Where bats occur and where they roost
Temperature
Bat roosts
Box: Patterning in bats
Lingering challenges
Bats up north
Box: Bat boxes
9. Social lives of bats
Reproduction
What is a colony of bats?
Food availability and social patterns
Box: Observational learning
10. How bats use space
Box: Bats get around
11. Threats to bats
Predators
Mishaps
Parasites
Wind turbines
Light pollution
A world without bats?
Global change
Box: Keeping bats away
12. Bats and people
Attitudes towards bats
Bats and disease
Bats as symbols
13. Bats as beings
A last word to the bats
Cast of bats
Notes
Index
Circa l’autore
Brock Fenton is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Western Ontario. He is Deputy Executive Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Science Publishing. Over his long career he has published widely on bats, from detailed research papers to books intended for the general reader.
Jens Rydell was a Swedish scientist and noted bat photographer, writing more than a hundred scientific papers on bats and insects. Renowned as a great teacher and conservation advocate, he was awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences conservation prize in 2017.
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