Do you think mice fly? If you do, you're wrong. Some people think there is such a thing as flying mice but they are really bats. Bats are mammals, just like you and me. Mammals are animals which give birth to live babies and the babies get milk from their mothers. Bats are the only flying mammals in the world.

Some bats are called megabats and the others are called microbats. Found only in Asia, Africa and Australia, megabats such as the flying fox, eat just fruit and are bigger than the microbats. Flying foxes are the biggest bats with wingspans that can be as large as six feet across. Microbats, found all over the world, eat almost anything, including bugs, nectar, frogs, fish and even blood! The bug-eaters use echolocation to find their prey.

Echolocating bats send out a high-pitched sound (ever "heard" a dog whistle?) that bounces off the bug and echoes back to the bat. Using their very sensitive ears, and sometimes even extra "ears" on thier noses, a bug-eating bat can hear where their dinner is. A single microbat can catch 600 mosquitoes in just one hour using echolocation.

Bats don't have any feathers; they have fur. Their wings are made of skin stretched between long skinny finger bones. In fact, the technical name for bats, chiroptera, means "hand wing." The only part that sticks out of the wing is the thumb.

Many bats that live in the United States of America live in caves and abandoned mines. The Mexican free-tailed bats of the Southwest U.S. live in huge colonies in caves that can have more than a million animals. Bat mothers that live in colonies like that can get babysitting chores. Mothers will take turns watching each others' babies so they can all get out to catch some juicy bugs. Other American bats live in trees, barns or even the attics of people's houses. In all, there are more that 800 different kinds of bats all over the world.

Bats are not blind. All bats can see. Fruit eating bats have very good eyesight. However, bats that use echolocation can have very poor eyesight. But even if one of these bats flies into your house, it will not get tangled up in your hair like some people think. It's echolocation will help it avoid anybody in the room. Just open a door or window and let it go catch some more mosquitoes.

Reported by Renee - 8, from California (with help from her mom, Tao)