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Ghost bats
Ghost bats live in caves
in Australia.
They hang upside down all day and fly at night.
Ghost bats are covered
with fur.
They eat insects, frogs and mice.
Bats are mammals, not
birds.
Ghost bats are the only carnivorous (say
car-niv-or-us) bats in Australia. Carnivorous means that
they eat meat. They eat large insects, frogs, birds, lizards and
mice.
Bats are mammals with wings, not birds. They are the only flying mammals.
Ghost bats catch prey by swooping on it and wrapping it in their wings. They kill the prey by biting it. Ghost bats take their victims to special feeding places, such as small caves.
Ghost bats are sometimes called 'false vampire bats' because people once thought that they sucked blood. This is not true.
Ghost bats live in the northern parts of Australia. They live in groups, called colonies. A colony may be just a few bats or about 100. The bats are nocturnal which means they are active at night. They rest during the day in caves, mines or large cracks in rocks.
The females produce one young each at a time. The young are kept in nursery areas, and are cared for by their mothers. When they are older, the young go hunting with their mothers until they are old enough to hunt for themselves.
Ghost bats are endangered because mining operations have destroyed their habitat.
Find out more about Ghost Bats http://www.amonline.net.au/wild_kids/bats/ghost.htm
If you use any of
this information in your own work, acknowledge this source in
your bibliography like this:
Ghost bats
(2000).
[Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
updated December 2006