Conservation Guardians of Northwest Illinois

More Field Notes Previous Next

Home  •  Field Notes  • Bat Tales

Going Batty

Spring 2003 Newsletter

Dear Diary,

I have spent my summer and most of the fall on nightly adventures chasing and eating many wonderful bugs. I slept during the day with my mom and the rest of our colony in our summer cave. Some of my red cousins spent the summer in trees. But as the night became cooler and the moths disappeared into their cocoons, we left to find a place for our winter sleep. I would like to tell everybody my story but I am too sleepy . . . and it takes so much energy to wake up. So maybe my friend Maggie will tell you about me.

See you next spring,
Little Brown Bat

P.S. Oh yea, I’m supposed to tell you that I’m not blind, and I certainly don’t want to mingle with your hair!

Maggie’s Bat Tales

I grew up living near the Mississippi River and taking bats for granted. I don’t remember being afraid of them -- or even particularly aware of them. Bats were just part of the scenery around here. I thought of them as some type of flying mouse.

It was in college that the subject of bats came across
my radar screen. My biology professor had done field studies on various animals, including the endangered Indiana Bat. During his study of a bat population, he and his colleagues often had to crawl through spaces where the bats were residing, and he reported that although the bats would be flying around, they never even grazed their human visitors!

This professor had developed a respect and a fondness for bats, and he shared these with us. He showed slide programs of various bat species and even brought live bats into the classroom. The more I learned about bats, the more interesting and endearing I found them to be.

Bats are mammals, so they have fur, give birth to live young (usually one) and nurse their young. There is great variety of size, appearance and diet within the order, called chiroptera (hand-wing).

Bats have many unique adaptations. For instance, though some squirrels glide, the bat is the only mammal that truly flies. Bats’ wings consist of bones that mimic the bones in a human arm and hand and are covered by a thin membrane.

Another amazing adaptation for most bats is echolocation, which they use to navigate and locate food. To echolocate, a bat sends out high-pitched noises that bounce off objects. “Reading” the echoes enables the bats to determine distance and size of the objects.

Bat activities provide enormous ecological benefits, including insect control, pollination of wild fruit crop strains and seed dispersal. In fact, eighty percent of tropical rain forest pollination and seed dispersal is done by bats.

They Fly By Night

Except for some of the fruit bats, bats are nocturnal. In our area, bats fill the nighttime niche birds occupy during the day, eating insect pests that would otherwise bother us and our crops. Yet while they protect us, we don’t always protect them — both birds and bats are harmed by pesticides.

There are approximately 900 species of bats, and they’re found on every continent except Antarctica. Bats inhabit every type of habitat and have adapted accordingly.
“Megabats” are the fruit-eating bats, but there are more kinds of what are called “microbats.” There are long-eared bats, spotted bats, bats that eat pollen and nectar, and bats that eat frogs, fish or scorpions.

Locally, our most common bats include the big brown bat, the little brown bat, and the red bat. The evening bat, the hoary bat and the silver-haired bat are also found here. The little brown bat’s habitat usually lives near rivers and streams, whereas the big brown bat prefers farmland and is considered the farmer’s friend.

Red and hoary bats reside in trees under bark or “hang around” and blend in with the leaves. As for size, the little brown bat has a wingspan of 9-10 inches, but its body is only about 2 inches, head to toe. The big brown bat’s body length is 3-5 inches and is has a wingspan of 13-14 inches.

Bat-Human Interactions

Researchers and rehabilitators who work with bats indicate bats are intelligent, gentle and personable. Merlin Tuttle, the founder of Bat Conservation International, has taken some amazing photos using a technique that wouldn’t be possible with most wild animals. He mist-nets a bat and gives it on-the-spot training with food until he can photograph and then release it.

But don’t try this at home! Tuttle and other researchers have rabies vaccinations, as well as special licenses to handle bats. Bats, like most wild animals, are protected by law and should not be handled -- for their protection and yours.

Like all mammals, bats can contract rabies. They are no more likely to have it than any other mammal, but it’s never smart to handle a downed bat. As a protective measure, wear leather gloves when you move wood piles, just in case you encounter any animal. You should never approach or handle any wild animal, but if for some reason you find it necessary to handle a bat, remember that bats are very small, fragile animals.

As for bat encounters with other vulnerable beings -- it’s always a good idea to vaccinate dogs and cats, and if a bat is discovered in a room with a sleeping or incapacitated individual, check with bat organizations for preventive measures.
Generally, when a bat is found inside a house, it is flying around looking for a way to get out. Accommodate it. It is not necessary to turn out the lights. Just open a door or window, or remove a screen. Then stay out of the bat’s way and give it a chance to fly out. It will use its echolocation to find the exit.

This is a much kinder and smarter way to remove a bat from your house than killing it, and it can benefit you with great outdoor mosquito control. It’s estimated that a single bat in Illinois can consume up to 3,000 insects per night!

Bats in the belfry?

If bats have taken up residence in your attic, there are effective “exclusion” techniques available from professional exclusion services. Or check the web sites below to learn how to do it yourself – but only in the summer after the pups have matured enough to fly with the adults. And be sure to put up a bat house in advance of the exclusion to acclimate the bats to other housing.

Bat-life includes many species of endangered and threatened bats, and even our most common bats are experiencing population losses. In some cases, vandalism has destroyed whole colonies, but habitat loss is usually to blame. To preserve bats, we need bat houses, education, and conservation and creation of natural habitat.

Bats are very vulnerable when they’re hibernating. If you are aware of a hibernation cave or mine, leave it undisturbed during the winter, since bats disturbed during hibernation use stored energy and then may not have enough left to make it through the winter. If a hibernaculum cannot be protected by location alone, bat organizations have been known to put gates on caves or mines which keep people out, but allow bats to come and go. In some cases, old mines serving as bat habitat but slated for destruction have been saved by conservationists.

So sleep well, Little Brown Bat. See you in the Spring!