Paragraph on “Why are bats thought to be sinister?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Why are bats thought to be sinister?

Many stories and legends have been built around bats and they are often associated with witches and dark, evil places. Perhaps this is not so surprising in many ways, for they often roost in church towers and old, abandoned buildings, swarming out at dusk to feed. But on the whole, bats are harmless creatures and only those like the blood-sucking vampire bat of Central and South America can be considered a threat to man.

Lots of people think of a bat as a sort of mouse with wings, but in fact, apart from being mammals bats have very little in common with mice. Bats form a group of animals called the Chiroptera, and in the Chiroptera we find two types of bat — the Microchiroptera and the Megachiroptera. The Microchiroptera are usually quite small with large ears, tiny eyes and often rather unpleasant-looking faces. For many of the Microchiroptera the main food is flying insects such as moths which, as we shall see later, they catch in flight in a truly remarkable way. The Megachirop-tera are larger bats with much better eyesight than the bats of the Microchiroptera. They also have smaller ears and a face which looks rather like that of a fox. The Megachiroptera feed mainly on fruit.

At the top of this page are some bats which belong to the Microchiroptera and on the opposite page is a Megachiropteran bat which is roosting.

Bats always hang upside down when they roost, but when they want to rid themselves of waste products, they grip the perch with their large claw (called a toilet claw) and turn themselves the other way up so that they will not soil their bodies.

Throughout the world there are many kinds of bat, and although we have mentioned those that eat insects, fruit or suck blood, there are others that suck nectar whilst hovering by flowers, and even some that skim the surface of water and catch fish with their feet!