Status Key
Not at Risk
Special Concern
Threatened
Endangered
Extirpated
Extinct
What Can We Do?
- Build Bat Houses
- Not likely to be used first year – don’t be discouraged!
- Look for white droppings under the box, or shine a flashlight up to see roosting bats and report your findings at www.batwatch.ca
- Do not disturb hibernating bats
- Spread the word and volunteer!
Echolocation
is the biological sonar used by bats to navigate and forage, often in total darkness. They emit calls out to the environment and listen for the echoes of those calls to bounce back from various objects near them.
Hibernation
is a deep sleep which allows bats to conserve energy and survive the winter with little or no food. Bats that live where insect prey is scarce during winter will hibernate in houses, trees, or rock cavities; clustered on walls or ceilings. Hibernation can last over six months on only a few grams of stored fat! They drop their body temperature and slow their metabolism to achieve this. By spring, bats will lose half of their body weight.
Nocturnal
Bats are nocturnal, which means they are active during the night and sleep during the day. The opposite of nocturnal is “diurnal” which means active during the day and sleeping at night.
Northern Long-Eared Bat
- Largely impacted by White Nose Syndrome, as well as habitat loss and wind turbine farms
- Hibernates in caves, roosts in trees in the summer
White Nose Syndrome
is an emerging disease in bats which has killed millions of bats in North America. It is a distinctive fungal growth around the muzzles and on the wings of hibernating bats. It was first identified in 2006 and is the gravest threat to bats ever seen, killing up to 90% of a region’s bat population within 5 years of exposure. No treatment or means of preventing transmission is known yet.
Little Brown Bat
- Once the most common bat in Canada, they are now Endangered due to White Nose Syndrome
- Can roost anywhere
- One of the longest lived mammals for its size – lives up to 33 years!
Hoary Bat
- Largest bat in Canada
- White frosted fur
- Lives in forests
- May hang on branches about 4 meters above the ground
- Migrates south, unlike the previous two species
Hoary Bat Enjoys Dinner
by the Wild Things Sanctuary
This female Hoary Bat is feeding. Watch her chow down on mealworms while she recovers from a tail injury.
