ORDER CHIROPTERA

Family Vespertilionidae

The US Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a website at BATS.  

Separate articles exist for the Endangered INDIANA BAT ,  TOWNSEND'S BAT and the GRAY BAT.

An excellent website on bats in Kentucky can be found at KENTUCKY BATS.

NATURAL HISTORY (1/94) - Bats, the only true flying mammals, are thought to have evolved more than 50 million years ago, during the Eocene period, from an insectivorous ancestor related to moles and shrews. More than 900 species of bats exist throughout the world, about 25% of all living mammalian species. Little brown bats live in colonies with females and young located separately from the males in the same cave. Bats are in the mammalian order Chiroptera, meaning hand-wing, acknowledging how the wings evolved from hands. The four fingers elongate with webbing to form the wings, while the thumb remains short and free for gripping. A similar membrane exists between the legs and tail. Juveniles don’t develop full wing length until forty to fifty days after birth, but will fly with the adults (as best as possible) after only four weeks. This results in awkward flight, with researchers observing what they can only describe as very disgruntled young, walking back to the roost, having giving up on flying for that night. Bat heart rates are 1,100 beats per minute in flight. Young mortality is high after the first flights, when young fall to the ground from exhaustion and are found by raccoons, skunks, snakes, or coyotes.

AUDUBON NATURALIST NEWS (9/91) - Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. World-wide, bats account for nearly one quarter of the 4,000 species of mammals (40 species in North America, 12 in the middle Atlantic region). All except three SW species in North America are insectivores. While searching for food by echolocation, they emit ten "clicks" per second until an echo from a nearby food source returns, then clicks up to 200 to 300 per second are emitted to help zero in on the food source. Bats can consume half their weight per night (600 mosquitoes/hour, or 3,000 insects/night). The eastern pipistrelle (8 to 10 inch wingspan) is the first to come out in the twilight evening. The little brown bat (8 1/2 - 10 1/2 inch wingspan) and red bat (11 to 13 inch wingspan) are also common. The big brown bat (12 inch wingspan), with it's steady flight give it the "night owl" nickname. Wintertime bats either hibernate or migrate. The red bat is our only suburban migratory bat. Big brown bats are the only ones that will commonly hibernate in houses.

A NATURALIST’S GUIDE TO THE YEAR (SMITH) - Unlike birds, whose body’s a model for gliding, the bat body and wings are not made for gliding. They never soar upward or coast horizontally. They have no large tail for rudders, thus, all maneuvering is made by changes in the bat’s wings. Due to their echolocation, bats can hunt in total darkness.