Bat fact 8: Bats have a lifespan of 20 to 30 years.
The lifespan of a bat is the longest for any mammal of their size.
Pictured: Endangered Indiana bat
Image: Wikimedia Commons
About Rhishja Cota-LarsonRhishja is the founder Annamiticus (fka Saving Rhinos), which publishes news and information about wildlife crime and endangered species. She is the Editor of the blogs Annamiticus, Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, and Project Pangolin, author of the book "Murder, Myths & Medicine", and host of "Behind the Schemes". When Rhishja is not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, she enjoys rocking out to live music.
This is actually not true. Recent studies have shown that bats belong to a clade called Laurasiatheria, that includes moles, shrews, cetaceans, ungulates, carnivores, pangolines, etc. Primates, on the other hand, are more closely related to lagomorphs and rodents than to bats. A good review of the higher-level phylogeny of mammals is “The new framework for understanding placental mammal evolution” BioEssays (2009) 31: 853-864
I didn’t realize bats pollinated! This is especially good since I had heard that honeybees are disappearing (I guess due to insecticides or other reasons – I’m not sure why).