Friday, March 11, 2016

Misinformation

After I'm done with this post I will be writing a letter to Mental Floss to inform them they had their bat facts wrong in the latest issue. They claimed that bats gave birth while hanging upside down then catching the pup with their wings. I was immediately suspicious as that would be working against gravity in the first place and secondly it seemed unlikely that upon giving birth their timing would be so fine tuned as to catch the pup in their wings. What actually happens is the birthing takes place when the female is lying on her stomach and pulling herself forward with her wings which still sounds a little awkward but way better than hanging upside down. The pups are usually single births and have no hair but very strong claws and legs to assist them in holding onto their mothers to nurse and when mom is gone they need to be able to hold onto wherever they are roosting as if they fall they will die.
Cute baby bat
Black bat hanging from tree branch
Bats resting on a cave wall

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