Pipistrelle bats have a magnetic compass and calibrate it at sunset, according to a new study. An international team of researchers led by the University of Oldenburg has used behavioral experiments to show that two different components of the Earth's magnetic field influence the orientation of these animals. Like birds, they seem to be sensitive to magnetic inclination.

The soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) weighs only a few grams, but it is estimated that members of this small bat species cover thousands of kilometers every year on their nocturnal migrations from north-eastern to south-western Europe. Precisely how they find their way across such long distances in the dark remains unclear.

However, an international team led by biologist Dr. Oliver Lindecke from the University of Oldenburg has found evidence suggesting that a magnetic sense may play a role in the bats' navigation. In behavioral experiments, the team discovered that two different components of the Earth's magnetic field influence the animals' orientation. The study has now been published in the journal Biology Letters.

While some wildlife species thrive well in cities, it's harder for large, insectivorous bat species to find enough food. To get their fill, city-dwelling common noctules (Nyctalus noctula) have to hunt longer than their rural counterparts and yet they catch fewer insects. While rural bats hunt together, their urban counterparts regularly forage alone. These findings, published in the journal Global Change Biology, are the results of a new investigation led by PD Dr. Christian Voigt and Dr. Laura Stidsholt from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW).

The wrinkle-faced bat is a frugivore (fruit eater) and is actually classified as a member of the leaf-nosed bats, despite not having a leaf nose. Molecular phylogeny is wild. They have the strongest bite force in relation to body size of all known bats and their short, broad heads are thought to allow them to eat a wider range of fruits.

Males grow a skin flap that partially covers their faces. When not in use for adorable convenience store robberies, males lower their masks to show females they're interested in getting it on. Seriously.

Does anyone know what type of bat this? Poor little bugger hit my office window a while back. Was unconscious, or stunned for a bit, but did manage to fly off. Alternate angle.

Edit: I’m in the Piedmont, NC area if that helps.

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Little brown bats, Myotis lucifugus, are abundant in southern Alaska, Canada, across the United States from the Pacific to Atlantic coasts, and the higher elevation forested regions of Mexico.

Myotis lucifugus is an efficient insect predator, especially when insects are in patches and at close range. These bats typically eat half of their body weight per night.

Mating occurs in two phases: active and passive. During the active phase, both partners are awake and alert. In the passive phase, active males mate with torpid individuals of both sexes; passive phase mating is approximately 35% same-sex.

Mating is random and promiscuous. Females in active phase usually mate with more than one male. In both active and passive phase matings, males mate with multiple females.

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Love songs aren't only for soft rock FM stations – they're also used by romantic bats, and researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin are believed to be the first to decode the mysterious love sounds made by the winged creatures. Their work is published in the current issue of PloS One (Public Library of Science).

Researchers Kirsten Bohn and Mike Smotherman in the Department of Biology at Texas A&M, George Pollak at the University of Texas at Austin and Barbara Schmidt-French from Bat Conservation International (now at Bat World in Mineral Wells, Texas) spent three years analyzing thousands of Brazilian free-tailed (also known as Mexican free-tailed) bat recordings to understand their meanings. They determined that male bats have very distinguishable syllables and phrases that they use as love songs to attract females and in some cases, to warn other males to stay away.

Their love songs apparently work well and are Top Twenty material in the bat world because there are lots of bats out there: The Austin locations used in the recordings contain up to 1 million bats, while an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 bats are believed to be winging their way around Kyle Field, home of the Texas Aggie football team, and the surrounding athletic complex area where the bat sounds were captured on tape.

"The sounds they make are very difficult for the human ear to pick up," explains Bohn, the lead researcher of the project funded by the National Institutes of Health.

"They are at a very high frequency range, but our recording equipment could track them very well," she says. "The sounds are made in a specific, arranged pattern to form a song, and there are actually organized sequences within each phrase. They are made to attract and lure nearby females.

"We compared the recordings made by bats in Austin to those at Kyle Field, and we discovered they were almost exactly the same – the bats in both places use the same 'words' in their love phrases."

Bohn says the team discovered several types of syllables, each one an individual sound. Syllables are combined in specific ways to make three types of phrases – a chirp, a buzz or a trill. Different combinations of the three are used by males during the mating process.

Bohn says the results are surprising because in general terms, mammals such as bats don't have "language rules" – the use of specific sequence of phrases and a complex means of communication to others in their species.

"With the possible exception of whales, you normally don't have this type of communication technique," she adds. "You see it frequently in birds, but that's about it. We've learned the vocal production of bats is very specific and patterned, and now we have a model not only to study communication similarities in other animals, but also human speech. We think this is a big first step."

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Mammals usually mate via penetrative sex, but researchers report Nov. 20 in the journal Current Biology that a species of bat, the serotine bat, (Eptesicus serotinus) mates without penetration. This is the first time non-penetrative sex has been documented in a mammal.

The bats' penises are around seven times longer than their partners' vaginas and have a "heart-shaped" head that is seven times wider than the vaginal opening. Both the penises' size and shape would make penetration post-erection impossible. The researchers show that, rather than functioning as a penetrative organ, the bats use their oversized penises like an extra arm to push the female's tail sheath out of the way so that they can engage in contact mating. This behavior resembles "cloacal kissing" in birds.