The creature of the night can be seen worldwide seeking its next meal. Worldwide, there are more than 1,240 species of bats, some of which eat fruit and fish, while others like the taste of blood.
The symbolism of bats is associated with witchcraft, black magic, and darkness in European cultures, for instance. Shakespeare describes liminal beings found their way into brews in Macbeth. As heroes and villains, they have evolved into mythical figures such as Batman and Dracula in modern times.
Bats are considered tricksters or gods by native American tribes like Apache, Creek, and Cherokee, who use them to play tricks on the order and rules of the world. Other people, however, believe that they are a more bizarre phenomenon of evil shape-shifting spirits. Aztecs even saw them as symbols of decay and destruction.
One thing remains the same no matter what perspective you take. Images range from haunting scenes to abstract figures whose meaning is unclear.
Bat Tattoos
What's the best tattoo you've ever gotten? Take a look at these options. Unlike usual tattoos (such as birds), bat tattoos are classified as mammals.
Although we have several ideas about the significance of these kinds of tattoo designs, they are mostly associated with luck, happiness, rebirth, and good fortune.
Colorful Bat Tattoos
Innovation and expression are essential to the tattooing process. Taking center stage in the new school style is the absurd, the cartoonish, the bold, and the imaginative.
New school bat tattoos, with their vibrant colors, are among the most striking types of tattoos that can express the essence of who you are.
If you want your tattoos admired, these bat tattoos will have people from across the room admiring your ink.
The bold lines and muted, classic colors, such as reds, golds, and greens, make up the American traditional style of American bat tattoos. A lot of negative space is used in this style and there is little shading.
The colorful bat tattoo can convey layers of meanings, just as this first Neo-traditional example does, by immediately conveying to others your love for fun.
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera. With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium.
The smallest bat, and arguably the smallest extant mammal, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is 29–34 millimetres (1+1⁄8–1+3⁄8 inches) in length, 150 mm (6 in) across the wings and 2–2.6 g (1⁄16–3⁄32 oz) in mass. The largest bats are the flying foxes, with the giant golden-crowned flying fox, Acerodon jubatus, reaching a weight of 1.6 kg (3+1⁄2 lb) and having a wingspan of 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in).
The second largest order of mammals after rodents, bats comprise about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with over 1,400 species. These were traditionally divided into two suborders: the largely fruit-eating megabats, and the echolocating microbats.
But more recent evidence has supported dividing the order into Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, with megabats as members of the former along with several species of microbats. Many bats are insectivores, and most of the rest are frugivores (fruit-eaters) or nectarivores (nectar-eaters). A few species feed on animals other than insects; for example, the vampire bats feed on blood. Most bats are nocturnal, and many roost in caves or other refuges; it is uncertain whether bats have these behaviours to escape predators.
Bats are present throughout the world, with the exception of extremely cold regions. They are important in their ecosystems for pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds; many tropical plants depend entirely on bats for these services.
Bats provide humans with some direct benefits, at the cost of some disadvantages. Bat dung has been mined as guano from caves and used as fertiliser. Bats consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides and other insect management measures.
They are sometimes numerous enough and close enough to human settlements to serve as tourist attractions, and they are used as food across Asia and the Pacific Rim.
However, fruit bats are frequently considered pests by fruit growers. Due to their physiology, bats are one type of animal that acts as a natural reservoir of many pathogens, such as rabies; and since they are highly mobile, social, and long-lived, they can readily spread disease among themselves. If humans interact with bats, these traits become potentially dangerous to humans.
Evolution
The delicate skeletons of bats do not fossilise well; it is estimated that only 12% of bat genera that lived have been found in the fossil record. Most of the oldest known bat fossils were already very similar to modern microbats, such as Archaeopteropus (32 million years ago). The extinct bats Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon (48 million years ago) and Hassianycteris kumari (48 million years ago) are the first fossil mammals whose colouration has been discovered: both were reddish-brown.
Bats were formerly grouped in the superorder Archonta, along with the treeshrews (Scandentia), colugos (Dermoptera), and primates. Modern genetic evidence now places bats in the superorder Laurasiatheria, with its sister taxon as Fereuungulata, which includes carnivorans, pangolins, odd-toed ungulates, even-toed ungulates, and cetaceans. One study places Chiroptera as a sister taxon to odd-toed ungulates (Perissodactyla).
