Comments on: How Does Rain Mess With Bat Flight—Thermodynamics or Aerodynamics?

By: Wildlife Control

Wildlife Control — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:38:45 +0000

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By: Dan Davis

Dan Davis — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:10:58 +0000

Additionally, most bats are insectivores. When it is raining, there is significantly decreased insect activity making food more scarce. I would be interested in a study with more variables and see which factor accounts for the most variance for the bats not flying while it is raining.

By: eyesoars

eyesoars — Fri, 06 May 2011 15:19:26 +0000

Or, wet fur might make the bats less aerodynamic, meaning it takes more power to fly.

There are real-world gliders and aircraft that suffer similarly: for instance, the PIK-20 and Nimbus 2 gliders are notorious for performing poorly when their wings (Wortmann FX-67-K-170 airfoils) are wet — water on the wings destroys their laminar airflow characteristics, substantially diminishing the gliders’ L/D ratio. The same is true of some airliners, though to lesser degree.

It strikes me as likely in the case of bats that the very fine fur/vellum is adapted for boundary-layer control: wetting it down would almost certainly destroy those properties. (E.g., high-performance aircraft can be improved by adding thin tape (0.005″) to create turbulence at appropriate places, or by roughening or waxing the wing in appropriate regions.)

By: Mark Spencer

Mark Spencer — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:40:14 +0000

I’m not really interested bout bats but there is no harm of addition knowledge. :) Very Informative post.

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:21:20 +0000

OK OK, but what I really want to know is this:

Does wet bat smell like wet dog? If not, is it better or worse? Discuss amongst yourselves…

By: Celia Su

Celia Su — Thu, 05 May 2011 04:24:40 +0000

That’s quite fascinating.

By: Angus

Angus — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:04:14 +0000

I did a three-week tropical ecology class in Costa Rica a few years ago, part oc which involved mist netting for bats. I remember when I held one in my hands that it felt surprisingly warm; the little dudes do NOT have much in the way of insulation.

The other thing that’s not mentioned is the difference between bat and bird wings—a bird’s wing is mostly feathers, not flesh. A bat’s is entirely skin, all of which has blood vessels running through it and is very thin. I imagine it acts like an African elephant’s ear in terms of shedding heat, and that the effects of evaporative cooling on a surface area that comprises roughly 3/4 of the bat’s total skin would be huge. That’s my theory.