Tag: Bats

The secret service takes to the sky as we paddle our canoe into a full moonlit Bear River. Our magic sonagram device collects hidden sounds of myriad bats, as they devour tens of thousands of insects. We’re floating through Wuda Ogwa, the Bear River Massacre site now owned by the NW band of the Shoshone Nation, the original owners, who lost it to Euromerican western expansion. A grant funded project being conducted by USU faculty and students, we recorded a remarkable number of species, perhaps influenced by the hot springs cave, that served as wintering grounds for the Shoshone people. There were marked differences in bat species associated with types of riverside vegetation, part of which was the invasive Russian olive.

Utah is home to eighteen species of bats found throughout the state which roost in a variety of habitats including caves, mines, hollow trees, leafy plants, rock cliffs, and buildings. The big free-tailed is the largest in Utah with a wingspan of 17 inches weighing less than an oz. The smallest bat, the western pipistrelle, is the size of a hummingbird and weighs 1/10 oz.

Most Utah bat species are year-round residents hibernating during the winter. Some species migrate south and remain active all year while migrating species breed in the spring. Hibernating bats usually breed in the fall. In the late spring, female bats gather in large nursery colonies where their young, called pups, are born in May or June.

Bats have “slow” life history and are constrained by tight energy budgets. Energetics has emerged as a driver of extinction risk among North American bats. Some of the most wide-ranging species are now on an accelerated trajectory toward extinction as a result of disease and wind energy production. Climate change is also likely to impact many bat species with broad ranges. Urbanization and other kinds of habitat-fragmenting land use changes are also thought to be altering species distribution patterns.

Bats offer many ecosystem benefits. Some subtropic species pollinate plants, many serve as prey to other animals, and cave communities benefit from bat guano which provides nutrients.

Bats benefit humans by eating up to 100 percent of their body weight in insects each night (1000 insects/hour), providing over $3.7 billion worth of pest control each year in the U.S. and reducing the need for pesticides. Their membrane wings and echolocation have inspired technological advances in engineering. The wingsuits used by basejumpers take more than a few cues from bats’ aerodynamic bodies. Utah law protects all bat species. Additional federal protection is extended to species on the Endangered Species List.

Given many gifts bats provide for humans numerous ecosystem services, we can reciprocate by reducing outdoor lighting which disrupts their natural behaviors, avoid disturbing them, especially if they are hibernating, building a bat house, and participating in Bat Week which occurs the last week of October. It’s a time to celebrate and learn about our Utah bats!

Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society and I’m Wild About Utah bats!

Credits:

Images: Courtesy US FWS, USDA Forest Service and US NPS. All photographers acknowledged with images
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Friend Weller, https://upr.org/
Text:     Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading Links: Jack Greene & Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Wild About Utah Pieces by Jack Greene, https://wildaboututah.org/author/jack/

Strand, Holly, Bats and Echolocation, Wild About Utah, May 13, 2010, https://wildaboututah.org/bats-and-echolocation/

Bunkley, Jessie, Bat Netting at Antelope Island State Park, Wild About Utah, July 11, 2016, https://wildaboututah.org/bat-netting-at-antelope-island-state-park/

Bats, Wild Aware Utah, https://www.wildawareutah.org/wildlife/bats/

Thomas J. Rodhouse, Thomas E. Philippi, William B. Monahan, Kevin T. Castle, A macroecological perspective on strategic bat conservation in the U.S. National Park Service, Ecosphere, ESA, https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.1576

Animal Fact Sheet: Western pipistrelle bat, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/bats/western_pipistrelle.php

Discover the Secret Lives of Bats, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/index.htm

Bat Species in Parks, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bats/bat-species-in-parks.htm

16 Incredible Pictures Show the Beauty of Bats, National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/incredible-photos-bat-appreciation-day

Utah’s 18 Bats, Utah Species, Fieldguide.Wildlife.Utah.gov, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?order=chiroptera

1. Big Free-tailed Bat – Nyctinomops macrotis, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=nyctinomops%20macrotis
2. Brazilian Free-tailed Bat – Tadarida brasiliensis, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=tadarida%20brasiliensis
3. Allen’s Big-eared Bat – Idionycteris phyllotis, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=idionycteris%20phyllotis
4. Big Brown Bat – Eptesicus fuscus, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=eptesicus%20fuscus
5. California Myotis – Myotis californicus, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20californicus
6. Canyon Bat – Parastrellus hesperus, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=parastrellus%20hesperus
7. Fringed Myotis – Myotis thysanodes, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20thysanodes
8. Hoary Bat – Lasiurus cinereus, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=lasiurus%20cinereus
9. Little Brown Myotis a.k.a. Little Brown Bat – Myotis lucifugus, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20lucifugus
10. Long-eared Myotis – Myotis evotis, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20evotis
11. Long-legged Myotis – Myotis volans, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20volans
12. Pallid Bat – Antrozous pallidus, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=antrozous%20pallidus
13. Silver-haired Bat – Lasionycteris noctivagans, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=lasionycteris%20noctivagans
14. Spotted Bat – Euderma maculatum, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=euderma%20maculatum
15. Townsend’s Big-eared Bat – Corynorhinus townsendii, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=corynorhinus%20townsendii
16. Western Red Bat – Lasiurus blossevillii, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=lasiurus%20blossevillii
17. Western Small-footed Myotis – Myotis ciliolabrum, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20ciliolabrum
18. Yuma Myotis – Myotis yumanensis, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=myotis%20yumanensis

White-nose syndrome: a disease of bats, Wildlife Blog, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-blog/724-white-nose-syndrome-a-disease-of-bats.html

Building nurseries for big-eared bats, Wildlife Blog, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-blog/707-building-nurseries-for-big-eared-bats.html

Rush, Claire, It’s almost Halloween. That means it’s time for a bat beauty contest, The Associated Press, October 26, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/bat-beauty-contest-bureau-of-land-management-6fb06024c8063903c73da3eaae2449a1

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

There are approximately 4600 mammal species in the world. A fifth—yes, 20%– of these species are bats. They are found everywhere except Antarctica. In Utah they are found at every elevation and in every ecosystem.

Bats are the only mammal that flies. “You forgot about humans,” my very precise husband points out. Well, OK bats are the only mammal that flies without a license and an airplane.

The majority of bats have smallish eyes perhaps leading to the expression “blind as a bat.” But bats are not at all blind. All of them can see and some rely solely on vision for both navigation and foraging. But most bats also have a sixth sense—called echolocation–to navigate and detect prey.

Echolocation refers to the process of sending out pulses of sound and listening to
the echoes to locate or avoid objects. Bats emit pulses of high frequency sound from their larynx or voicebox. These sounds are ultrasonic which means that they occur at frequencies beyond the range that humans can hear. The sounds are emitted through the mouth in some bats and through the nose in others.

The sounds bounce off external objects and echoes are returned to the bat’s ear. The size and shape of the bat’s ears help amplify the returning sound. The sound travels through the ear and is converted to vibrations in the inner ear fluid and then on to the brain via the auditory nerve.

Bat brains have unique structures that compare the features of the original sound pulse against the characteristics of the returning echoes. By assembling and assessing the return data, bats can know the direction of and distance of an object. Some bat species have evolved echolocation to such a degree that they can even distinguish shape among individual species of insects.

Because of echolocation bats are phenomenal hunters in low light conditions. A single little brown bat can catch 300 to 3,000 insects per night, and a nursing mother little brown bat eats more than her body weight each night — up to 4,500 insects. Hmm. That’s a lot of mosquitoes. I think I’ll invite some bats to my backyard this summer.

Thanks to the Marie Eccles Foundation –the Russell Family for supporting Stokes Nature Center programs.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy US FWS and USDA Forest Service
Text: Stokes Nature Center: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Bat Conservation International. 1997. Bat Chat: An Introduction to Echolocation
https://www.batcon.org/, https://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/learning/bat-squad/bat-squad-ep-4-bat-chat-join-the-bat-squad

Wilson, Don E. 1997 Bats in Question: The Smithsonian Answer Book. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC https://www.amazon.com/Bats-Question-Smithsonian-Answer-Book/dp/1560987391

Bats Live, Prince William County Public Schools, Manassas, VA, https://batslive.pwnet.org/

Bat Week 2015
Sometimes misunderstood, bats are important and fascinating animals. Watch this video to learn some bat facts, find out what challenges are facing bats today and what you can do to help #savethebats.
Bat Week Video from USGS, US FWS and The Organization for Bat Conservation

13 Facts About Bats, US Department of the Interior, Blog, 10/24/2016, https://www.doi.gov/blog/13-facts-about-bats

White-nose syndrome: a disease of bats, Wildlife Blog, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-blog/724-white-nose-syndrome-a-disease-of-bats.html

Building nurseries for big-eared bats, Wildlife Blog, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-blog/707-building-nurseries-for-big-eared-bats.html