What Plants Do Bats Eat?

When it comes to the diet of bats, there isn’t one single diet preference for all bats, since bats, like many species, eat various things depending on their habitat and the exact variety of bat. The list below is a run-down of just a few common bat diets and eating habits, including what plants bats eat.

Plant-Eating Bats

It’s not exactly true that bats eat plants. They don’t munch on the leaves in the way that, for example, a deer would – they’re not built for that. But bats do drink the nectar from flowers in a way that’s very similar to bumblebees.

Nectar bats have long tongues somewhat like hummingbirds, and they travel at night, sucking the nectar from night-blooming flowers. Some bats also eat pollen, the dusty substance inside of flowers; these bats have tongues covered in fine brushes that gather up the dust so they can swallow it. Bats don't eat the plants themselves, but they eat plant products like nectar and pollen.

Fruit-Eating Bats

Fruit bats are fairly well known. They’re inhabitants of both moderate climates and rain forest climates, and in both areas they’re helpful for pollination because they drop seeds in their waste as they fly. Fruit bats love over-ripe fruit and are known well to owners of orchards and farms, who know what fruits these bats will eat and have to take steps to stop these bats from dining on fruit.

Insect-Eating Bats

The most common diets for bats are insects. Insects are nighttime fliers, too, and they get chased down by the bats in a classic hunter scenario. More than 65% of bats are insect-eaters. They literally hone in on the insects and swoop, swallowing them in mid-air. Some bats, maybe with less of a flair for the dramatic, will chase insects on the ground or pick them out of plants, but for the most part this is an airborne meal.

Fish-Eating Bats

Yes, it’s true: there are bats big enough to eat fish. Nobody likes to think about it, but fisherman bats act much like hawks and other birds of prey that hunt fish dinners. They hover low over water watching for the rippling signs of fish just beneath the surface, and then they stick their feet in the water and feel around for the fish, grabbing it and yanking it out if it’s unlucky enough to get within reach.

Bat-Eating Bats

Are you getting scared yet? There are indeed bats with a favorite diet of… other bats. There’s not much else to say about that, other than it’s typically, like insects, an airborne catch-and-feed.

Blood-Eating Bats

The famous vampire bats do indeed exist, but the good news is they’re not out for human blood. Birds should look out, though. Vampire bats are extremely mobile, on both the ground and in the air. Chasing down prey is no problem, and once they catch it, they use their razor-like teeth to make tiny slits in the skin of the prey and lick up the blood as it comes out. Their saliva contains an ingredient that prevents blood for coagulating, so the flow keeps coming. Vampire bats typically need about two tablespoons a day to survive.