Bats
Bats are cool
Bats are the only true flying mammals. There are over 1,400 species of bats, and they can be found on nearly every part of the planet. Not only are they cute, they are also important...
Studying how bats use echolocation has helped scientists develop navigational aids for the blind. Without bats’ pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control we wouldn’t have bananas, avocados, mangoes, agave, or cacao… that’s right, bats bring us tequila and chocolate!
Found a bat in need of help?
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Do not handle it with bare hands! Bats can carry rabies.
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Here's a map of worldwide rescues and temporary care instructions.
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Bats should never be kept as pets: Here's why.
Celebrate bats with us!
Our community's mascot is Baxter. Baxter is an Egyptian fruit bat that was cruelly kept alone and confined to a small cage for 12 years before being rescued by a bat sanctuary. You can read the full story by clicking on his name.
Our rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
- Be respectful and inclusive
Everyone should feel welcome here. Hateful or bigoted language will not be tolerated.
- No illegal or NSFW or NSFL content
Don’t post anything a fruit bat would not approve of.
- No bat hate
Please don't hate on bats in this community (this includes all of your edgy covid humor).
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Bats don’t like spam.
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I thought all birds used the magnetic field to navigate.
Not all birds. Ostriches can't fly, and until recently used a variety of Garmin GPS devices.
They switched to Google Maps?
I see what you did there. I'm not taking the bait. I know that bats and birds are the same clade. I don't buy into the fake-news media trying to tell us they're distinct creatures. If they were, why would they both have wings, huh? HUH SMARTASS?!
/s
Here's the thing. You said a "bats and birds are the same clade."
Are they in the same phylum? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies bats, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls bats birds. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "the same clade" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Scrotifera, which includes things from tigers to rhinos to pangolins.
So your reasoning for calling bats and birds the same is because random people "call the flying ones birds?" Let's get dragonflies and flying fish in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A bat is a bat and a member of the Chordata phylum. But that's not what you said. You said bats and birds are the same clade, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the Chordata phylum birds, which means you'd call elephants, lions, and other mammals birds too. Which you said you don't.
It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?
Are you out of your mind?? Bats are rodents!
Bats are bugs. I read it in a book!
Oh, I wasn't trying to bait anything. I suppose I just read the OP as if it was painting bats as special in this particular way, and I was questioning that.
I figured this:
Was looking for a "bats aren't birds" response, to which there would be a clever reply. Guess I read into it.