Flying Animal

Believe it or not, but the flying fox is really a bat! It is called the flying fox because it has red-brown fur and a head like a fox. It is about one foot long.
During the day, these flying foxes, or fox-bats, hang upside down from the branches of trees in large numbers, so that the trees have the appearance of carrying heavy bunches of some extraordinary looking fruit.

The vampire bat is another one of these mammals. Surprisingly, these bats are not large, their bodies being a little larger than those of mice.
With its sharp front teeth the vampire bat makes a small incision, similar to a razor cut, in the flesh of its sleeping victim, and draws blood until its appetite is satisfied. Or it may be slapped away as soon as the alarmed victim awakes.
Contrary to the many fanciful and spine-chilling stories that have been told about these creatures, their bite is not fatal. The bite may, however, transmit a disease to man or beast, and if much blood is sucked the effect is very weakening.

The sizes and habits differ from bat to bat, so does their colouring. Most species are a mousey colour. Some are brownish-yellow on the underside, or nearly white, and one is orange coloured.
Bats do not make nests. The young ones, referred to as pups, are born blind, and quite bare of fur. The pup clings tightly to the mother when she goes out hunting for food for the first few weeks. Then when the little one is better able to be left on its own, the mother hooks it up by its toes in the cave or hollow tree trunk until she returns. After about two months, the youngster is sufficiently grown up to fend for itself.

Zoologists place all the different kinds of bats into one order — Chiroptera (meaning hand-winged). Odd as it may seem, bats have the same number of ‘fingers’ as we have, but they are strangely formed.
The thumb is very short, and instead of having a nail, the thumb has a claw or hook which is used when the bat is not flying or to scramble about on a tree. The bones of the palms of the bat’s hand are very long, and the finger bones, also very long, are joined to them. This great length of bones is to support the ‘web’ of the wings.

The web stretches from the shoulders down the two bones of the arm, over the bones of the hand, and down the tips of the four fingers. Then, from the underside of the arms, it reaches down to the legs, as far as what would be our ankles, and between the legs to join on to the tail.
As a matter of fact, if you were to take away the ‘webbing’ of a bat’s wing you would see a little animal with two arms and hands and two hind legs!