Compare & Contrast
How are bats and flying squirrels alike in their physical characteristics and classification as mammals? Use at least two details from the passage to support your answer.
Both are mammals, have fur or hair, are warm-blooded, and feed milk to their young. Many species are also active at night.
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What challenges might bats and flying squirrels face in darkness?
Darkness can make finding food and avoiding obstacles more difficult.
Why might being active at night be an advantage for both species?
Nighttime activity may help them avoid certain predators and reduce competition for food.
Inference: A student claims that flying squirrels are simply squirrels with wings. Use information from the passage to explain why this description is inaccurate.
Flying squirrels do not have true wings and cannot sustain powered flight. They glide using a membrane of skin stretched between their limbs.
Why is echolocation especially useful for many bats?
Echolocation allows many bats to detect insects and obstacles when visibility is poor.
How do bats and flying squirrels contribute to the health of their ecosystems? Explain why both animals are important, even though they eat different foods.
Bats help control insect populations, spread seeds, and pollinate plants. Flying squirrels spread seeds and fungal spores, supporting forest growth and nutrient cycling.
Cause and effect: How might cutting down a large area of forest affect both bats and flying squirrels?
Bats could lose roosting sites and sources of food. Flying squirrels could lose tree cavities for nesting and the trees that provide food and gliding routes.
What does the diet of flying squirrels consist of?
Flying squirrels commonly eat nuts, seeds, fruits, fungi, and buds.
How do bats and flying squirrels find food differently?
Many bats catch insects while flying, and some use echolocation to find them. Flying squirrels locate food through sight, smell, and hearing.
The names bat and flying squirrel might lead someone to believe that both animals fly in the same way. How does the passage show that this assumption is incorrect?
Bats can sustain powered flight by flapping their wings. Flying squirrels glide from higher locations to lower ones and cannot remain airborne by flapping their gliding membrane.
Compare the structures that allow each animal to move through the air. How does a bat's wing differ from a flying squirrel's patagium?
A bat has thin skin stretched across elongated finger bones. A flying squirrel has a flap of skin between its front and back legs that acts like a gliding surface.