Bats at Twelve Hills

Eastern red bats eat insects–mostly moths, as well as other insects, which can be agricultural or garden pests. You can spot these medium sized (for their genus) fliers on wing at dusk, often around street lamps or other places insects might flock to as the sun is setting. They top out at about 4.3″ from head to tail, have a relatively long tail about 2.07″, and a its forearm is approximately 1.60″. Their rusty red fur is distinctive, with males being darker and females being a frostier shade of red. Their breeding season begins in the fall and typically, a female will have three pups in a litter. The pups will be born in early summer.

They roost in open trees, not caves like most people imagine, as forrest-dwelling, solitary bats. They are well camouflaged in the trees, appearing to be dead leaves. These bats are migratory and move northward in the spring, and southward in the fall. In some warmer places, they may stay year-round.

Photo by: smpbiologist-rcurtis

The small evening bat weighs in at less than half an ounce! Its forearm reaches 1.5″ in length, and it’s known for having a large, dog-like muzzle. The evening bat is brown, sometimes with white underfur, or pelage. These small bats roost in tree cavities, tree bark, human made structures and forage in forests, riparian zones, and open fields-which is why these bats might be found in Twelve Hills.

Evening bats, like most other bats, are insectivores and feed mostly on beetles and moths. An interesting fact is that they are known to partition resources with other bat species, which means they will eat different types of insects from the other bat species foraging in the same area, such as the Eastern red bat and the Seminole bat, both found at our nature preserve.

Photo by: gtguy

The Seminole bat is often confused with the red bat. This is due to the coloring of the Seminole bat, which is a mahogany color with a frosted look due to white tipped dorsal hairs.[4] Coloring is not sexually dimorphic, meaning that males and females are similar in color. Average weight is around 12 grams with females being larger than males.

They roost in open trees, not caves like most people imagine, as forrest-dwelling, solitary bats. They are well camouflaged in the trees, appearing to be dead leaves. These bats are migratory and move northward in the spring, and southward in the fall. In some warmer places, they may stay year-round.

The Seminole bat is found in the Southeastern United States. This includes Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and parts of Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina. There are also records of Seminole bats as far as Mexico. It is a migratory species, living along the Gulf Coast, in the Carolinas, and southern Arkansas during the winter. In the summer, they migrate as far north as Missouri and Kentucky.

The bats prefer to live in forested areas. In winter months they are found to use leaf litter and Spanish moss as insulation in their roost sites. Spanish moss is also thought to be an important factor in Seminole bat environments year round and is believed to be a limiting factor in distribution of these bats.

Photo by: jasonpike1980

The tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) or American perimyotis is a species of microbat native to eastern North America. Its common name “tricolored bat” derives from the coloration of the hairs on its back, which have three distinct color bands. It is the smallest bat species in the eastern and midwestern US, with individuals weighing only 4.6–7.9 g (0.16–0.28 oz). This species mates in the fall before hibernation, though due to sperm storage, females do not become pregnant until the spring. Young are born helpless, though rapidly develop, flying and foraging for themselves by four weeks old. It has a relatively long lifespan, and can live nearly fifteen years.

In the summer, females roost in small groups and males roost solitarily in tree foliage or beard lichen. It eats a diverse array of insects, foraging with a slow, erratic flight and navigating via echolocation. Though once considered one of the most common bat species in its range, its populations have declined rapidly since 2006 with the introduction of the fungal disease white-nose syndrome. It was listed as an endangered species in 2012 in Canada, and has been petitioned for inclusion on the US endangered species list.

Photo by:
lachlanbebout