„A bat can eat up to ⅓ of its body weight in insects per night, which can be several thousand insects.”
Austria’s native bat species are insectivorous. There are many species around the world that prey on vertebrates such as small mammals, frogs, reptiles, birds, fish and even other bats. Others eat a predominantly vegetarian diet of fruits, flowers, nectar, pollen and leaves. Only three species from Central and South America feed on blood (they are the only mammals on earth that feed exclusively on blood). They have razor-sharp incisors with which they can painlessly inflict a cut on their prey, and an anticoagulant enzyme in their saliva allows them to lick up the blood from the cut, rather than suck it (as popular media has portrayed). Vampire bats feed primarily on the blood of cattle, horses and birds.
Photo: Ashtrays are ideal for feeding bats separately here at the Station.
