A mouselike flying mammal with a furry body and wings.
According to modern definitions, bats are flying mammals. They have hair and make milk for their babies. But the Bible groups them with other flying animals, like birds. The bat is included in the two lists of unclean birds (Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18).
Bats live in caves, crevices, holes in trees, buildings, and even open spots on trees. In colder areas, they sleep for long periods (hibernate) or travel elsewhere. The normal resting position for a bat is hanging head downward. When bats fly, it looks as though they are swimming through the air because they move with their legs as well as with their wings.
The bat's thumb is free and ends in a single hook claw. It is used for climbing and hanging. The hind feet have five toes, all facing the same way. The large chest has space for muscles needed for flying. Their hearing is well-developed. Bats use sound to see, which is called "echo location."
Most bats eat insects, catching them in flight. Some insect-eating bats also consume fruit. Other bats, however, eat only fruit and plants, usually in groups. Fruit bats mainly live in tropical areas where fruit is always ripe. A few, though, are found in the holy land. These bats are typically larger than insect-eating ones, with wingspans reaching up to one and a half meters (five feet).
A third group includes flower-eating bats that feed on pollen and nectar. These small bats have long, pointed heads and long tongues. They are found only in tropical and semitropical regions. Three species of vampire bats, which do not occur in the holy land, eat blood by making a small cut and lapping it up. Meat-eating bats hunt birds, lizards, and frogs. Fish-eating bats catch fish at or near the surface of the water.
Eight kinds of bats live in the holy land. One of them, the little brown bat (genus Myotis), lives everywhere in the world, the most locations behind humans. It eats insects. Brown bats mostly live in caves. The females form maternity colonies of up to tens of thousands.
Two species of mouse-tailed bats (genus Rhinopoma) live in the holy land. Their tails are nearly as long as the head and body combined. They live in colonies in caves, rock clefts, wells, pyramids, palaces, and houses. Like the brown bat, they eat insects. The slit-faced or hollow-faced bats (genus Nycteris) also live in the holy land. They are insects and live in groups of six to 20.
Bats in Israel and Palestine range in size from a mouse to a rat. The largest species has a wingspan of over 51 centimeters (20 inches). Bats were considered ritually unclean to the Jews and were not to be eaten (Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18).