Nature's pest control

When we think of bats, we might think of the cave-dwelling, blood-sucking creepy critters from vampire movies. But bats are more common (and a lot cuter!) than you'd think! Australia has more than 90 species of bat and 70% of these are microbats.

Most microbats eat insects, and some people call them 'nature's pest control' because of their voracious appetites. They can eat 40% of their own body weight in a night - that's several hundred insects per hour!

These types of microbats make their way through the dark using echolocation, listening to the echoes from their high-pitched calls (which are usually too high for the human ear to detect).

In Perth you can look out for the Lesser Long-eared Bat, White-striped Free-tailed Bats, Southern Forest Bays and Gould's Wattled Bats.

Image: Lesser Long-Eared Bat by Pavel German, used with permission