Preface

Bats are the only mammals capable of self-powered flight and constitute more than 20% of living mammal species, and up to 110 bat species may coexist in the same ecological com‐ munities, a number that far exceeds that of any other mammalian group [1]. Bats diversified in the Early Eocene in response to an increase in prey diversity, and Eocene bat fossils have been found on most continents leaving the geographic origin a source of debate [1]. Despite their taxonomic and ecological diversity, modern bats (Order: Chiroptera) are almost exclu‐ sively nocturnal. The only other vertebrates that exploit niches for nocturnal flying preda‐ tors are owls and nightjars.

My personal interest and experience with the world of bats follow closely my owl studies, which have taken me so far to 130 countries in all continents. When sleeping in a hammock on the roof of our research boat in the Colombian jungle, I was a little worried by the over‐ head circulating bats because in this area vampire bats are frequent visitors. However, I nev‐ er had any problem because of the deplorable eating habits of these bats!

When searching for one of the rarest owls in the world, the Seychelles scops owl (*Otus insu‐ laris*), I saw a lot of Seychelles fruit bats (*Pteropus seychellensis*). These owls have a wing span of up to 1.7 m and weigh up to 900 g [2], making them to look like flying dogs and are more scary in the dark forest than the small vampire bats of South America.

When living in Abidjan, I often witnessed the invasion of up to 1 million straw-coloured fruit bats (*Eidolon helvum*) coming to harvest the city's fruit trees. It has been estimated that 3 million people have learned not only how to live with these creatures, but also how to hunt them, cook them in sweat stews and put them to use in West African voodoo ceremonies [3].

If one day I am able to return to Zambia, there is one more thing I must witness: the largest *Eidolon helvum* invasion in Africa. Over 10 million bats descend for 90 days from late Octo‐ ber to mid-December into a small swamp forest in Kasanga National Park [4]. This is said to be the largest mammal migration on earth but is obviously only half of that compared to the Mexican free-tailed bat (*Tadarida brasiliensis*) migration in the New World! Some 20 million bats from San Antonio, Texas, move every year to winter in Mexico [5].

Bats have a poor image for the public at large. Partly because bats spend all day tucked away in places where they can't really be seen and come out at night and do strange things in strange ways. So, it is difficult for people to understand how they work and what they are doing. This book aims to improve the public image of the bat.

We have eight chapters on bats covering countries such as Algeria, Bulgaria, France, Paki‐ stan, Poland, the UK and the USA and subjects ranging from acoustic monitoring of bat spe‐ cies for distribution and conservation purposes to bat-borne and bat-carried diseases, which cannot be taken lightly but should not be a reason for panic or to fear or even kill bats. With the added knowledge through this book, we should know how best to cope with bats, which need all our support in the changing environments and climates.

I want to thank the Publishing Process Manager Lada Božić for her time-consuming efforts to get all the authors to deliver their chapters after corrections. Without her active attitude, some important chapters would have been left out of the book.

**Heimo Mikkola**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Bats Eaten by Owls**

**Introductory Chapter: Bats Eaten by Owls**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76099

Bats and owls are very popular hoppy and research subjects of nature loving people as shown by BatLife and Owler groups all around the world but what is the relation of bats and owls in the wild. An assessment of owl dietary studies and anecdotal accounts was made but the huge material (well over 10 million prey animals) is in print elsewhere [1]. However, the role played by owls in the mortality of Eurasian bats is shortly reviewed for

The owl diet studies revealed that most owls are sometimes eating the bats although none makes a living out of them as other prey are much easier to capture. Well-studied European owl species ate a total of 19,864 bats [1]. At least 49 bat species have been identified in the diet

Barn Owl *Tyto alba* and Tawny Owl *Strix aluco* have captured most of all bats (47.1 and 42.6%), and Long-eared Owl *Asio otus* comes next (7.3%). Short-eared Owl *Asio flammeus* and Eagle Owl *Bubo bubo* take similar amounts of bats (1.2 and 1.3% respectively). For Tengmalm's *Aegolius funereus*, Ural *Strix uralensis* and Little Owls *Athene noctua* bats were fairly rare prey item, with less than 0.1–0.4% of this material [1]. Scops Owl *Otus scops* and Pygmy Owl

*Glaucidium passerinum* ate less than 10 bats, so they are not included in **Table 1**.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76099

Heimo Mikkola

**1. Introduction**

this book.

**2. Bat-eating owls**

samples (**Table 1**).

Heimo Mikkola

Eastern Finland University Finland

#### **References**


#### **Chapter 1 Provisional chapter**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Bats Eaten by Owls Introductory Chapter: Bats Eaten by Owls**

#### Heimo Mikkola Heimo Mikkola

cannot be taken lightly but should not be a reason for panic or to fear or even kill bats. With the added knowledge through this book, we should know how best to cope with bats, which

I want to thank the Publishing Process Manager Lada Božić for her time-consuming efforts to get all the authors to deliver their chapters after corrections. Without her active attitude,

[1] Simmons, N.B. 2005. An Eocene big bang for bats. Science 307: 527–528.

[2] Burton, J.A. & B.P. Pearson. 1987. Rare Mammals of the World. Collins, London. [3] IOL News 2001. Gothic edge to life in Abidjan/Africa/5 August 2001. https://

[4] Kasanganationalpark.com/explore/thing-to-do-see/witness-the-bat-migration (ac‐

**Heimo Mikkola**

Finland

Eastern Finland University

need all our support in the changing environments and climates.

some important chapters would have been left out of the book.

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican\_free-tailed\_bat

**References**

VIII Preface

www.iol.co.za

cessed 24.12.2017).

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76099

**1. Introduction**

Bats and owls are very popular hoppy and research subjects of nature loving people as shown by BatLife and Owler groups all around the world but what is the relation of bats and owls in the wild. An assessment of owl dietary studies and anecdotal accounts was made but the huge material (well over 10 million prey animals) is in print elsewhere [1]. However, the role played by owls in the mortality of Eurasian bats is shortly reviewed for this book.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76099
