bats

The smallest bat

The smallest bat is the butterfly bat, also called Kitti's hognose bat (Craesonycteris thonglongyai), which weighs about 2 grams (less than a nickel) and has a wingspan of about 5 inches (13 cm).

The largest bat

The largest bat is the flying fox (Pteropus giganteus), an Old World bat found on tropical islands. A large adult weighs about about 1.2 kilograms, with a wingspan of almost 2 meters (about 6 feet). It eats fruit and is harmless to people, but its importation into the United States is forbidden because of the damage it might do to fruit tree crops.

Further Resources

An excellent Web site on bats, including directions for building bat houses, is www.batcon.org

Gerhard Neuweiler.
Ellen Covey, translator.
The Biology of Bats.
New York: Oxford, 2000.