batA furry, winged creature: a mammal and not a bird. There are at least 1,500 kinds, about a fifth of all the kinds of mammal.
colonyA group of bats that live and roost together. The largest known, in a cave in Texas, holds 15 to 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats in summer.
echolocationUsing returning sound to find the way and the prey. Each kind of bat has a call pattern of its own, so scientists can tell bats apart from recordings.
guanoDroppings of bats or seabirds, prized as fertilizer. The word came through Spanish from Quechua, a language of the Andes. Many cave animals depend on the nutrients in bat guano.
hibernateTo shut the body nearly down for the whole winter. A hibernating bat's heart can slow from 200 or 300 beats a minute to about 10. Some little brown bats hibernate for more than six months.
insectivoreA creature that lives chiefly on insects. An insect-eating bat can eat half its body weight or more in insects in one night.
mammalA furry, warm-blooded animal raised on mother's milk. A newborn bat can weigh up to 40 percent of what its mother does.
Show all 36 terms (29 more)
Bat basics, continued
migrateTo leave for a far-off seasonal home and then return. Hoary bats fly south for the winter, when insects grow scarce. Not every bat migrates: some kinds hibernate, and some do both in turn.
nocturnalUp and about in the dark hours, at rest in daylight. Bats are mostly creatures of the night, though a few fruit bats are out by day.
pupThe name for a bat while it is still very young. Most mother bats have one pup a year.
roostThe place where a bat rests, or to rest there. Bats roost hanging upside down by their feet. Tendons hold the grip, so hanging takes no effort.
wing membraneThe thin skin stretched between a bat's long fingers. Its scientific name is the patagium. The skin grows out from the belly and reaches the tip of every finger.
Body, flight and calls 12
clawA pointed, hooked nail that grips or scratches. A claw is built of keratin, a tough protein. On the wing, a small bat has a claw only on its thumb; most fruit bats have one on the second finger as well.
echoA reflected sound that reaches the ear a moment late. The farther away the surface, the later the echo arrives. A bat judges distance by that delay.
feeding buzzThe rapid burst of calls a bat makes closing on prey. The quick calls pin down exactly where the insect is just before the bat swoops in.
flightMoving through the air without touching the ground. Bats are more agile in the air than most birds.
forelimbA front limb: an arm, a front leg or a wing. A bat's wing is a forelimb. Because bats are mammals, the bones of the wing match those in the forelimbs of other four-limbed animals.
nose leafA leaf-shaped flap of skin on some bats' noses. It helps aim the calls of bats that echolocate through the nose. Horseshoe bats are named for the shape of theirs.
tail membraneThe skin stretched between a bat's hind legs. Its scientific name is the uropatagium. A mother bat holds her newborn in her wing and tail membranes.
thumbThe hand's first finger, clawed on a bat's wing. A bat's thumb points forward and supports the front edge of the wing.
torporA short, deep slowdown of the body that saves energy. The word is Latin for numbness. A bat may enter torpor for a few hours on a cold day, or for up to a month at a time in winter.
tragusA little flap of skin that guards the ear opening. In many bats it helps guide returning sounds into the ear. People have one too, named in Greek after the goat for the tuft of hair on it.
ultrasoundSound of a pitch that human ears cannot pick up. It begins at about 20 kilohertz. Bat calls run from about 12 to 160 kilohertz, so a few of them can just be heard.
wingspanThe full width of a flier with both wings stretched. The largest flying foxes span 1.5 meters or more, about 5 feet.
Kinds of bats and their world 12
bat detectorA device that makes bat calls audible to people. It shifts the calls down to between about 120 hertz and 15 kilohertz, well inside human hearing.
bat houseA wooden box put up to give bats a place to roost. It is also called a bat box. Unlike a birdhouse, it has its opening on the underside.
ChiropteraThe order of bats; the name means hand-wing. The name joins the Greek words kheir, hand, and pteron, wing. Only the rodents make a larger order of mammals.
frugivoreAn animal that eats mostly fruit. About a fifth of the plant-eating mammals eat fruit.
hibernaculumA sheltered place where an animal spends the winter. The word is Latin for winter quarters. Bats pick caves, mines and rock crevices where the temperature and humidity suit them.
maternity colonyA group of mother bats raising their pups together. It forms when pregnant bats gather and breaks up once the young are weaned. Roosting close together keeps the bats warm.
megabatA fruit bat; most find food by sight and smell. The biggest megabats are called flying foxes. Not all are big: nearly a third of the kinds weigh less than 50 grams.
microbatAny of the bats, mostly small, that echolocate. Scientists long split all bats into megabats and microbats. Newer evidence divides the order another way.
pollinatorA visitor that takes one flower's pollen to the next. Bats that feed on nectar pollinate agaves, bananas and many other plants.
seed dispersalThe moving of seeds to places where they can sprout. In rainforest that has just been cleared, fruit-eating bats can do as much as 95 percent of the seed dispersal behind the first new growth.
vampire batA bat of Latin America that feeds on blood. There are three kinds. The common vampire bat feeds mostly on cattle and other large animals, which often do not notice.
white-nose syndromeA fungal disease that harms hibernating bats. The name comes from a white fungus seen on the nose and wings of sick bats. It was first seen in New York State in 2006 and has since killed millions of bats in North America.
How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-12. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the article on the term in the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Bat, Bat flight, Bat wing development, Nocturnal animal, Animal echolocation, Patagium, Insectivore, Guano, Hibernation, Animal migration, Forelimb, Claw, Tragus (ear), Nose-leaf, Horseshoe bat, Wingspan, Flight, Ultrasound, Echo, Torpor, Megabat, Microbat, Pteropus, Vampire bat, Frugivore, Pollinator, Seed dispersal, Maternity colony, Bracken Cave, Hibernaculum (zoology), Nest box, White-nose syndrome and Bat detector. Mammal, roost, colony and pup were read in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Echolocation and the feeding buzz, hibernation, torpor and migration, what bats eat, pollination and seed dispersal, vampire bats, how long bats live and white-nose syndrome were checked a second time against the National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/echolocation.htm, Echolocation; https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/benefits-of-bats.htm, Benefits of Bats; https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/hibernate-or-migrate.htm, Hibernate or Migrate; https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/myth-busters.htm, Myth Busters; https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-white-nose-syndrome.htm, What Is White-nose Syndrome?), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (https://www.fws.gov/story/bats-are-one-most-important-misunderstood-animals, Bats are one of the most important misunderstood animals), the U.S. Geological Survey (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-do-bats-eat, What do bats eat?, and https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-white-nose-syndrome, What is White-nose Syndrome?) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (https://www.doi.gov/blog/13-facts-about-bats, 13 Awesome Facts About Bats). Wikipedia's Bracken Cave gives its colony as an estimated 20 million bats and Maternity colony gives over 15 million, so the list says 15 to 20 million. The mammal row rests on Wiktionary, not on the Wikipedia article of that name. The fact after each meaning is from the same pages. Licence: own work
How it works
This bat vocabulary worksheet prints bat, mammal, nocturnal, echolocation, roost, colony, wing membrane, insectivore, pup, guano, hibernate and migrate down the left and their meanings in another order down the right. The answer key is the last page.
Read the full guide
Body, flight and calls
Set opens on Bat basics and holds two more bat vocabulary worksheets. The second set has forelimb, thumb, claw, tragus, nose leaf, tail membrane, wingspan, flight, ultrasound, echo, feeding buzz and torpor.
Kinds of bats and their world
The third set has Chiroptera, megabat, microbat, vampire bat, frugivore, pollinator, seed dispersal, maternity colony, hibernaculum, bat house, white-nose syndrome and bat detector.
No. All bats can see. Fruit bats find their way and their food by keen sight and smell, and the bats that echolocate use their calls to hunt and steer where there is too little light to see by.
What do bats eat?
Many bats eat insects, and most of the rest eat fruit or nectar. A few kinds hunt other small animals, and three drink blood. One little brown bat can eat 4 to 8 grams of insects in a night.
How long do bats live?
A long time for so small an animal. Some bats live more than 30 years, and the oldest known was caught again in the wild after 41. A rat, by the National Park Service's account, lives 1 or 2 years.
Does the bats vocabulary worksheet have an answer key?
Yes. The key is the same sheet with a line drawn from each bat term to its meaning.