Bat Facts
Amazing Facts About Bats
-
Bats see as well as other mammals and use echolation — a biological sonar system–to detect objects as fine as a human hair.
-
Bat are meticulous groomers and are among the cleanest of animals.
-
Most species bear and nurse just one pup a year.
-
There are more than 1,100 species of bats which account for nearly 25% of all mammal species. 42 bat species are found in the United States.
-
Bats are found on every continent except Antarctica.
-
Approximately 50% of all animals living in tropical rain forests are bats.
-
Bats are essential to a healthy ecosystem and are responsible for keeping night-flying insect populations in check. Just one bat will catch hundreds of insects in just one hour. A large colony of bats will catch tons of insects nightly, including moths and beetles, preventing billions of dollars in crop damage, not to mention the pesky mosquitos in our backyards!
-
Bats pollinate many agricultural crops, including bananas, breadfuit, avocadoes, dates, figs, peaches, mangoes and cashews.
Bats Common to New Jersey
- The bats species commonly found in New Jersey are all insectivores, and include the Little Brown Bat, Big Brown Bat, Eastern Red Bat and Hoary Bat. All of these species have a long life span, living 18-20 years or longer.
- Big Brown Bats are a relavtively large bat, with a body length of 4″-5″, and weighing 1/2 – 5/8 ounce. These bats live in colonies and make their homes in caves, old mines, hollow tree trunks, and occasionally in the walls and attics of homes and buildings. These bats will also live in man-made bat houses. After breeding, females will separate themselves from males, raising their young in nursery roosts. Big brown bats give birth to 1-2 pups from late May to early June. Within 3-4 weeks, the pups will begin to leave the roost for their first flight.
- Little Brown Bats are little bats, with a body length of 3″-31/2″ and a wing span of 6″-8″ and weighing no more than 1/2 ounce. Little Brown Bats are insectivores and will consume 50% of their body weight in insects each evening. Females reach sexual maturity at 6-9 months; males at 12 months. Breeding occurs from September-October. The females will store the sperm until the spring for fertilization. Little Brown Bats give birth to usually 1 pup per year from late June -early July. The pups are independent within about 4 weeks. Little Brown Bats will hiberate in clusters in caves, mines and occasionally hollow trees that provide a suitable microclimate where the temperature is maintained at about 40 degrees.
- Eastern Red Bats are solitary and are one of the few bats that will roost in trees, camouflaged by their red-brown fur to resemble dead leaves. Eastern Red Bats are migratory and will overwinter in the southern United States and Mexico, returning north in the spring. Eastern Red Bats also give birth to 2 – 4 pups from May-July. Unlike many other bat species, young Eastern Red Bats will will remain with their mother after they have learned to fly and will roost together as a family group.
- Hoary Bats (so named because its fur has a frosted appearance) are North America’s largest bats, with a body length of 5″-6″ inches and a 16″ wingspan and are found throughout the continental United States. Like the Eastern Red Bat, the Hoary Bat is solitary, roosting in the foliage of trees. It typically gives birth to twins in late spring or early summer.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND A BAT
Bat are sometimes found inside a residnce or outside on the ground. As with any wild animal, a bat should not be touched with bare hands.
If the bat is flying around inside the house, the best thing to do is close all the doors to the room where the bat is flying, and open a window. Leave the bat alone and it will evenually find its way outside.
If the bat is not flying about, you can quietly approach the bat using a towel, thick gloves, or other similar material, and gently gather the bat up and place it in a small box or other container with a secure lid. Alternatively, you can place a box, coffee can or other small container over the bat where it has landed. Then, take a piece of cardboard and gently slide it between the box and the surface where the bat has landed (i.e., the floor, wall or ceiling) Keeping the cardboard in place, gently turn the container right side up. Make sure the lid is secure but with ventilation holes so that the bat will have adequate air supply.
Contact a wildlife rehabilitator in your area. SMWRC is one of several facilities licensed to handle bats in New Jersey. For a complete list of rehabilitators, go to www.njfishandwildlife.com and click on the wildlife link or call. Additionally, a state by state list of bat rehabilitators is located at www.batworld.org (click on Local Rescue). If you are unable to access that list, call Bat World Sanctuary at 940-325-3404 for help in locating a Bat World rescue center or a bat rehabilitator.
If you do not find immediate help, you can provide temporary care as follows:
Take a box with a secure fitting lid, line it with an old t-shirt or soft cloth so that the bat has something to cling to and can hang upside down. Please do not use terry cloth towels–bats can get caught in the threads and injure themselves! Put some water in a baby food jar lid or other shallow container. Place the lid on the floor of the box next to a wall so the bat can hang over it to drink. Make sure the top is secured to the box. Some bats can squeeze through a crack as thin as 1/4″!
If you must handle the bat please remember to wear thick gloves. Although rabies in bats is rare, if you are bitten the bat will need to be tested. Keep the box in a room where the bat will not get too warm or too cold and make sure the room is closed off from children and pets.
Please note: Like most mammals, bats can catch rabies. However, less than one-half of one percent (0.05%) of bats actually contract the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is not necessary to test a bat for rabies unless it has had physical contact with a human or domestic pet. However, a bat will need to be tested if if is found in a room with a person who cannot reliably rule out physical contact, for example, a sleeping person, a child, a mentally disabled or intoxicated person. If contact has occurred or is suspected, please contact your physician or local health department immediately.
For more information about bats and how you can help them, please contact Bat Conservation International, P.O. Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716 or visit their website at www.batcon.org.
For anyone interested in reading about bats, we commend America’s Neighborhood Bats by Merlin D. Tuttle, available at your local library or bookstore.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey – Bats of New Jersey
Bats are mammals, possessing hair, giving birth to live young, and feeding young milk produced by mammary glands. Most produce only one offspring (called a pup) annually and rear their young for the first few weeks of life until they are able to fly and feed on their own. These reproductive and rearing practices make them the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size. Despite their slow reproduction, bats exist in large numbers and encompass one quarter of all mammal species, second in population only to rodents. Bats are the only true flying mammals and use echolocation to locate and acquire prey. Bat species found in New Jersey are insectivorous and can consume thousands of insects in a single night.
New Jersey is home to nine species of bats. Six species are year-round residents and three species are migratory.
Year-round residents include the:
• Little Brown Bat
• Big Brown Bat
• Northern Long-Eared Bat
• Indiana Bat (a federal and state endangered species)
• Eastern Small-Footed Bat, and the
• Eastern Pipistrelle
These species are active throughout the late spring, summer, and early fall but go into dormancy, hibernating in caves and abandoned mines, for the cold winter months. The Hoary Bat, Red Bat, and Silver Haired Bat are part-time residents, migrating to southern states in the fall to over winter in the milder climate.
Bats have evolved throughout the millennia to be habitat and food specific. They rely on certain food sources and certain habitats in order to survive. Their reliance on the specific food resources and habitats makes them vulnerable to disturbance. Disturbance to hibernation or roosting areas and declines in locally available food or water can be detrimental to local bat populations. Disturbances can also interfere with the care of offspring, so it is crucial that birthing and rearing sites remain largely undisturbed.
Bats need to eat and drink every night. Their food requirements are well served by open grasslands and edges of forests where insects are abundant. They also prefer roosting near open bodies of water which allows them to swoop down in flight and drink water without landing. During the day they prefer to roost in tight crevices such as cracks in rocks, under exfoliating tree bark and in awnings of buildings. These locations provide protection from predators and stable temperatures.
Bats are the primary predators of night flying insects. A single little brown bat can consume up to 1,200 mosquito sized insects in an hour and up to 3,000 insects in a single night. Nursing mothers can eat up to 4,500 insects nightly – more than their own body weight. Many insect pests are consumed by bats including cucumber beetles, leaf hoppers, termites, ants, roaches, corn earworms, grasshoppers and mosquitoes. Loss of bat species increases the need for chemical pesticides, increasing costs to landowners and farmers and endangering fragile ecosystems with unintended contamination and consequences.
Myths and untruths about bats are numerous. In fact, bats are actually quite harmless and are important indicators of a healthy environment. Since they are particularly vulnerable to pollution and pesticides, their presence or absence can tell scientists a lot about the overall health of the local environment.
Bats seldom spread disease. Like most mammals, bats can contract and transmit rabies, although less than one-half of 1% of wild bats have rabies. In the past 50 years, only 48 U.S. residents are believed to have contracted rabies from bats. The fear of being infected with the disease by bats far exceeds the risks.
Furthermore, bats do not entangle themselves in hair as widely believed. They will not encounter people by choice, only in defense.
Lastly, very few species of bats are vampire or blood consuming. Out of the more than 1,100 different species of bats worldwide, there are only three species of vampire bats and none live in the United States. Vampire bats only live in tropical climates and typically feed on cattle or poultry livestock.
What you can do for Bats!
Protecting natural habitats from disturbance, especially during hibernation and raising of young, is a key factor in maintaining healthy bat populations. If bats inhabit your home or an undesirable location, it is important to use proper eviction methods to remove them. IT IS ILLEGAL FOR ANYONE, INCLUDING ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICERS AND EXTERMINATORS, TO KILL BATS. Terminal traps and poisonous bait traps should never be used. Bats should never be trapped and relocated as they will return and re-inhabit their roosting sites if access is available. One way doors are a great way to evict bats from an unwanted area. If evicting bats from a building, it is important to provide a nearby shelter, such as a bat house, for the bats to inhabit. All evictions or exclusions should take place prior to mid-May or after mid-September.
For further information about proper bat exclusion techniques please visit www.batcon.org and link to their Bats in Building webpage.
Building and hanging bat boxes is a simple and common practice which provides vital roosting locations for local bat populations. There are many designs for bat houses available today but research has shown that bats tend to use houses that include specific characteristics. A variety of sizes and styles of bat houses can be found online. Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org, and Bat Conservation and Management, www.batmanagement.com, are excellent resources for bat houses.
Additionally, the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, has begun an initiative through which New Jersey residents will be able to acquire bat houses and participate in research to gather information about roosting areas. Participants will be able to participate in the Summer Bat Count that involves finding a roost and counting the bats as they exit in the evening. Counting should take place twice a year, between late May and August, and information will be recorded on a datasheet and submitted to Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. Information collected will help biologists to document summer roosting locations and help to create a range map for some species of New Jersey bats. Volunteer today! For more information please call 609-984-0621 or 908-782-4614 ext. 104.
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting New Jersey’s endangered and threatened wildlife and the habitats they depend on for survival. We accomplish this through research and conservation projects and education and outreach programs that advance the protection of New Jersey’s rarest wildlife residents. For more information, please visit www.conservewildlifenj.org