post the fifty-ninth, 2013

animalia chordata mammalia eutheria laurasiatheria chiroptera

according to wikipedia, 1000 bats can eat four tons of insects per year.

one ton is 2000 pounds so four is 8000.

1000 bats eat 8000 pounds of insects.

1 bat eats 8 pounds of insects per year.

8 pounds per year is .02lb per night.

if my calculations are correct, .02lb is 1/3 of an ounce, which doesn't sound like much until you remember that insects weigh exactly 0.

the largest bat is the malayan flying fox, which weighs about 1.5kg and the smallest -- the bumble bee bat -- weighs 1.7g and is the smallest known mammal. in case you aren't metric, converted to the imperial, 1.5kg is about 3lbs and 1.7g is .05oz. i am guessing the bumble bee bat isn't the one eating 8 pounds of insects in a year.

so, bats eat a metric shit-ton of insects. can you even imagine the insect-filled skies if there were no bats? in addition to eating the hell out of the bug population, bats provide great fertilizer in the form of guano, a.k.a.: POO. they also aid in pollination (another form of fertilization) and seed dispersal (third fertilization activity).

one of the bullet points is not like the others....

i went to find how many types of bats there are, and this is what i found: "There are around 1,100 species of bats found worldwide. Bats account for over 9000% of all mammal species on earth." 9000%. wow. that is a significant portion.