Their habits are equally varied to meet special conditions: Some are eaters of fruit alone; others feed solely upon insects, while others bite other mammals, including man, for the purpose of drinking the oozing blood, upon which they subsist. All are nocturnal, but some appear late in the afternoon, before the sun sets; most species, however, wait until the shades of night have covered the earth.
Throughout the world the majority of the species of bats feed upon insects, but there are many fruit-eaters. The teeming insects and plant life of the tropics afford a never-failing food supply, and the center of abundance of these animals is found there. In some localities between twenty and thirty kinds of bats exist, with such vast numbers of individuals that the bat population far outnumbers all other kinds of mammals combined.
ANIMALS THAT PUT THEMSELVES IN COLD STORAGE
In the northern parts of the Old and New Worlds many mammals, including bears, marmots, prairie-dogs, ground-squirrels, and jumping mice, pass a large part of the winter months in a lethargic sleep called hibernation. While hibernating these animals have extremely slow and slight heart action and their bodily temperature falls far below the normal of their active periods. During the most profound hibernation an animal may be awakened if brought into a warm temperature, but when again put into the cold at once returns to sleep.
Preparatory to this sleep, during the summer and in the autumn, the hibernating mammals become exceedingly fat.
It has long been generally accepted that the fat thus accumulated was for the purpose of being gradually absorbed to nourish the animals during their long fast. As a matter of fact, during this period the bodily functions appear to be practically suspended and the animals may be said to be in cold storage. This is evident from the fact that observations have been made of ground-squirrels, and even bears, emerging in spring, after their long winter sleep, practically as fat as when they retired in fall. Hibernating animals become extremely active as soon as they come out in spring and quickly lose the fat which should be of special service to them, owing to the temporary shortage of food they experience at this season.
Most hibernating species do not retire for the winter until cold weather is at hand, in September or October, at times remaining out until after the first snow has fallen. The animals which retire latest, like chipmunks and prairie-dogs, sometimes appear temporarily during certain warm periods in winter.
Recent observations have established the fact that the adults of both sexes of the Richardson ground-squirrel living in the Northwestern States and adjacent parts of Canada become excessively fat by the first of July, and before the first of August practically disappear for the season, not appearing again until they emerge the following March or April. The retirement of these squirrels for a part of the summer is a case of imperfect estivation, as it is termed, followed by complete hibernation. The young of the year enter hibernation at a considerably later date.
DEFENSIVE AND OFFENSIVE ANIMAL ALLIANCES
A great number of both large and small mammals live solitary lives except for brief periods during the mating season or the association of the young with the mother. Some species, however, like the wolves and coyotes, may mate permanently and show great mutual affection and constancy. Many species have well-developed social instincts, which appear in some cases to combine two purposes, self-defense and the desire for companionship.