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I'm thinking of an animal. It's small, and furry.
我正在想一种动物。它很小，而且毛茸茸的。
It can be pretty cute. And it flies around at night.
它非常可爱,在夜间飞行。
Can you guess what animal it is?
你猜到是什么动物了吗？
That's right! I'm thinking about bats!
没错，我想的就是蝙蝠。
Some people think bats are scary.
一些人认为蝙蝠很可怕。
Maybe because they only come out at night.
可能是因为它们只在夜间出来。
Or maybe because sometimes they live in dark places.
或者是因为有时它们生活在黑暗的地方。
Or maybe it's because some species of bats, called vampire bats, survive by drinking blood.
或者是因为有一些叫吸血蝙蝠，它们靠喝血生存。
But you probably won't ever run into a vampire bat.
但是你可能从未遇到过吸血蝙蝠。
Only three species of bat are blood drinkers.
只有三种蝙蝠是吸血的。
The rest of them, over 1,200 species, eat fruit, nectar, bugs, other small animals.
其他的1200多种蝙蝠吃水果、花蜜、小虫子和其他小动物。
If you ask us, bats are totally awesome!
我们的意思是，蝙蝠总的来说还是极好的！
Here are just three of our favorite things about them!
对于蝙蝠，有三件事是我们最喜欢的。
To start, some bats can hear their way in the dark!
首先，一些蝙蝠能够在黑暗中辨路！
That's because they don't rely on their eyes, like we do.
因为它们不像我们一样依靠眼睛，
Instead, bats use sound to find their way around.
而是通过声音来辨别周围的情况。
Have you ever yelled into a big empty room, or a canyon, and heard your own voice shout back at you?
你曾经对着一个空的大房间或者峡谷叫喊，并且听到自己的声音回响吗？
That's called an echo.
那叫做回声。
The sound of your voice moves across the room, to the walls, and then bounces back to your ears.
你的声音穿过房间，到达墙上，然后反射到你的耳朵里。
And as a bat flies through the night, it does something really similar.
这和蝙蝠在夜间飞行非常相似。
It makes a sound, and then carefully listens for the echo.
它制造出声响，然后仔细辨别回声。
And the way the echo comes back can tell the bat a lot about what's around it.
回声返回的方式告诉它很多周围的情况。
This special skill is called echolocation.
这个特别的技能叫做回声定位。
If the echo comes back quickly, that means there must be something pretty close to it,
如果回声返回的快，意味着东西距离它非常近。
because the sound only traveled a short way before bouncing back.
因为在回声反射前，声音只经过了非常短的距离。
But if the echo takes a long time for the sound to bounce back,
但是如果这个声音反射的回声经过了很长时间才返回，
then the bat knows that the object is further away.
那么蝙蝠就会知道物体的距离比较远。
Bats can tell not only how far away something is, but also how big it is, and how fast it's moving,
蝙蝠不仅能辨别物体的距离，也能辨别它的大小和速度。
all from using echolocation!
所有这些都通过回声定位来判断。
And since bats are constantly using echolocation to figure out the world around them,
蝙蝠经常通过回声定位来判断它们周围的世界，
you'll often see them flying around with their mouths open, to keep making sounds to bounce back.
你也会经常看到它们张着嘴巴飞行，来保持声音的反射。
Another thing we like about bats? They really like to hang out!
我们喜欢蝙蝠做的另一件事是什么？它们非常喜欢倒挂！
Bats hang upside down in quiet, dark, hidden places like the roof of a cave or the underside of a bridge.
蝙蝠们在安静、黑暗、隐蔽的地方如山洞的顶部或者桥的下面倒挂。
But how? When I hang upside down from the monkey bars,
但它们是怎么做到的呢？我倒挂在单杠上，
after a while I start to feel like my head's going to explode!
不久就开始感觉我的头要爆炸了一样。
Bats can hang for a long time, because their bodies are built for life upside down!
蝙蝠能倒挂很长时间，是因为它们的身体生来就是能倒挂的！
The little pathways in their bodies that blood moves through, called arteries,
其血液流经身体的小通路，叫做动脉，
have special valves in them that only let blood through one way.
动脉有一个特殊的瓣膜能使血液单向流动。
As the bat's heart beats, the blood has to keep moving through its body in just one direction.
随着蝙蝠心脏的跳动，血液不得不在身体里单向流动。
That keeps the blood from getting stuck in the bat's head when it's hanging upside down.
因此，当蝙蝠倒挂时，血液不会阻塞在头部。
That's a pretty neat trick.
这是相当灵巧的技能。
But you know another thing that's easy to like about bats?
但是你知道另外一个蝙蝠吸引人的故事吗？
They make really great moms.
它们绝对是伟大的母亲。
Bats usually have one baby, called a pup, in a year.
一年里，蝙蝠通常只生一个宝宝，
At the beginning of a pup's life, it clings to its mother's belly all the time,
宝宝刚生下来时，它会一直贴着母亲的腹部，
While the mom wraps her wings around it.
母亲会用翅膀裹着它。
Maybe we should stop calling good snuggles "bear hugs" and start calling them "bat hugs"!
或许我们应该停止称呼这种依偎叫做“熊抱”，而叫做“蝙蝠抱”！
And thousands of moms and their pups can live together in a huge group, called a nursery.
成千上万的妈妈和它们的宝宝们共同生活在一个叫温床的大团体里面。
Even when it's cold outside, the nursery stays warm, because of all those bats hanging close together.
外面寒冷时，所有的蝙蝠都紧密的悬挂在一起，所以温床是暖的。
Plus, when mom needs to go out to find food,
另外，当妈妈需要外出觅食时，
she can just drop her baby off at the nursery with the other moms and pups.
它可以将它的孩子留在温床里，和其他的妈妈宝宝们待在一起。
When she comes back, you might think it'd be hard to find her baby again.
当它回来时，你可能会认为它很难找到它的宝宝了。
I mean, there are thousands of pups that look just like hers!
我意思是，成千上万的宝宝看起来都像它的宝宝。
But bats and their pups can recognize each other by their smells and their voices.
但是蝙蝠母亲和它们的宝宝可以通过彼此的气味和声音来辨识出对方。
So when a pup calls out, the mom can fly right to it
所以当宝宝叫喊时，母亲能准确的飞向它。
It would be like trying to find your family in the middle of a crowded amusement park,
这就像是你在一个拥挤的娱乐公园里找你的家人，
except all of the other kids at the park are calling out for their parents, too!
除非公园里所有其他的孩子们也叫喊着寻找他们的父母，否则你很容易找到家人！
So what do you think? Aren't bats scary-cool?
所以你怎么看？蝙蝠可怕冷酷吗？
They have super sensing abilities, they can hang out upside down, and they're marvelous moms.
它们拥有超级感知能力，能倒挂，又是非凡的母亲。
Do you have a question about animals, or anything else, that you'd like to learn more about?
你想知道更多的动物们或者其他东西吗？
Get help from a parent, and leave a comment below or email us at kids@thescishow.com,
请求父母的帮助，在下面评论区留言或者发邮件到Kids@thescishow.com,
and we'll see you next time!
让我们下期再见！
