For Halloween, we pull out decorations involving spooky animals, including bats. These creatures really are creepy: they look like mice with wings. But bats are our friends, as they are flying bug traps. A bat can eat 1/3 of its body weight in bugs in just a few hours. When you think about how little a bug weighs, that’s an awful lots of insects! We’ll take bats over bugs any day — not just on Halloween.
Lace up: Bats have the same number of wings as a bird. How many wings is that?
Jog: If you’re dressed up as a bat for Halloween and then 3 bats fly overhead, how many wings do you guys have altogether?
Sprint: If a bat weighs 3 pounds and can eat 1/3 its weight in bugs in a few hours, how many pounds of bugs is that?
Hurdle: How much longer is the longest bat (22 inches) than the shortest bat (1 1/2 inches)?
High Jump: If a bat flies 22 feet to catch a bug, then zigzags 19 feet to catch a second bug and 18 feet to catch a third, how many feet did it fly for that meal?
Answers:
Lace up: 2 wings.
Jog: 8 wings.
Sprint: 1 pound of bugs – yuck!!
Hurdle: 20 1/2 inches.
High Jump: 59 feet.
