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Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

You've seen one bat, but you most definitely haven't seen them all.

That's because, after rodents, bats make up the second largest

order of mammals. There are over 900 different species fluttering around, from a bumblebee-sized

hog-nosed bat to gentle giants with wingspans of five feet, that's a meter and a half,

or longer. Most bats eat insects and often in copious amounts. Then you've got your big game hunters,

bats who have evolved strong enough jaw muscles that they can prey on vertebrates, such as fish,

lizards, or birds. And, of course, the blood-drinking vampire bats from Central and South America

need no introduction. But not all bats are carnivores, or vampiric.

About 300 species eat fruits and other plant products to survive,

which works out great for the rest of us,

because those flying creatures really help the environment.

One of the most important families of bats is the terrapodidae, also known as the old-world fruit bats.

They hang out in tropical and subtropical parts of Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and many Pacific Islands.

Remember those gentle giants we mentioned above?

Those would be the flying foxes, which are enormous terrapoddids that represent the largest

bats alive today. A species called the giant golden-crowned flying fox can weigh two

and a half pounds or about a kilo, which trust us is big for a bat. You may be relieved to hear

that it is a fruit eater or frugivore with the taste for figs.

For the article this episode is based on, How Stuff Works spoke via email with biologist Liam

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