Bats: Top 10 facts about the word bat

1. The composer Johann Strauss II was born on October 25, 1825.

His most famous work was the opera Die Fledermaus, which means “the bat”.

2. The US sheriff, gambler and gunfighter “Bat” Masterson died on October 25, 1921.

3. “Bat” was an abbreviation of Masterson’s first name, Bartholomew.

4. The terms “bats” and “batty”, to mean crazy, were first heard in the early 20th century.

They came from the slightly earlier “bats in the belfry”, which was first heard in 1880s America.

5. Curiously enough, October 25, 1760 was the day the “mad king” George III came to the throne.

6. Bats can eat up to 1,200 mosquitos an hour and may eat their body weight in insects nightly.

7. Before oil was discovered in Texas, the state’s richest export was bat droppings which were used as fertiliser.

8. The bumblebee bat of Thailand, also known as Kitti’s snub-nosed bat, is the size of a thumbnail and is the world’s smallest bat.

9. The largest bat is the giant golden-crowned flying fox which has a wingspan of up to 5ft 7in.

10. The 1,000 or more species of bat comprise a quarter of all mammal species on Earth.