Photo by Don Pfritzer, USFW © |
The
Little Brown Bat is one of the 15 species of bats
found in Tennessee. Adults grow to about 3.5 inches, have a wing span of
10 inches, and weigh about 1/4 ounce.
Little Brown Bats are insectivore eating mostly flying insects. Including beetles,
wasps, bees, flies and more. Usually hunting above the tree canopy
they are one of the first bats to emerge in the evening. They find their
food using echolocation.
Bats are the only members of the mammal family that can fly. Like all
mammals they have fur and are warm blooded. They also give live birth and
produce milk for their babies. Bats are in the scientific order Chiroptera (kie-rop-ter-a), which means
'hand-wing' and are known to live from 10 to 32 years.
While most people generally think of bats living in caves, in the summer
time bats actually live behind bark, in tree's, jungles, and man made
structures such as buildings, barns, and bridges.
Bats provide an extremely important service for the environment in that they
eat large quantities insects. In fact some bats can eat as many as 1,200
insects in one hour. Since some insects such as misquotes carry diseases
including the West Nile Virus and other insects like Cucumber Beatles and moths
can cause severe crop damage, bats are doing humans a huge favor as well.
Bat Facts:
• There are more than 1,100 bat species.
• 70% of bats are insectivores.
• Bats make up almost 25% of all mammal species.
• a single brown bat can catch more than 1,200 insects per hour
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