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Preface Have you ever actually seen a live bat up close? For most people, the answer is probably no, yet many cringe at the very idea of seeing a bat. This reaction is probably based in part on horror stories and creepy movies that depict bats flying around at night causing mayhem. It is revealing that in countries where day-flying bats are common, they are considered lucky omens and are even thought of with affection. In general, bats in the wild are unthreatening , and their instinct, when disturbed, is simply to fly away. Like many other mammals and their offspring, some bats appear to be curious, affectionate, and even playful with one another. Of the more than eleven hundred species of bats in the world, most of the forty-six species found in the United States are relatively small, comparable in size to a canary. A common American species, the insect-eating little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), weighs only seven to nine grams, the combined weight of a nickel and a dime. The large bats in the popular imagination are Old World fruit bats, found in tropical areas of Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Bats are highly beneficial animals. Large colonies of bats literally eat tons of insects every night, reducing the amount of pesticides that are needed on the crops farmers grow and, in turn, that end up in the foods we eat. Many bats in tropical areas pollinate plants and disperse seeds, making important contributions to crops, habitat maintenance, and rain-forest regeneration. x PREFACE In the last few years, both traditional research and innovative projects using advanced technology have resulted in a flood of new and fascinating information about bats, their lifestyles, and their habitats. In this book we hope to satisfy your curiosity about bats, providing simple answers and including some of the latest scientific discoveries. It has been our goal to make the information accessible and enjoyable and to replace any misconceptions you may have with appreciation and curiosity. If you were already a bat groupie, we hope you will come to appreciate these fascinating creatures even more than you did when you opened this book for the first time. ...

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