Little brown bats use caves, hollow trees, or buildings as roosting places, which they leave at dusk and return to just before dawn. They mostly feed on flying insects near water or forests, chasing them with an erratic flight pattern. Bats utilize a sophisticated echolocation technique to navigate and find food, sending out high-pitched squeaks that bounce off prey or obstacles in their flight path. Little brown bats feed mainly on insects and moss. It is estimated that one little brown bat can eat 1,000 mosquitoes in a single night, helping to control the hordes of bugs that can plague an Alaskan outing.
Those bats living in the north usually migrate southward in the fall and hibernate in a cave colony or other suitable retreat. However, the wintering areas of Alaskan bats remain a mystery.
Breeding occurs during late fall and winter, with a single offspring born from May to July. Their eyes open after two or three days, and little brown bats begin to fly at about a month old. At this point, the young bats become self-supporting.
Resources:
Burt, William H. and Richard P. Grossenheider. 1980. Peterson field guide to mammals. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston Massachusetts.
Alaska Geographic Society. 1996. Mammals of Alaska: a comprehensive field guide from the publishers of Alaska geographic. The Alaska Geographic Society. Anchorage Alaska.
For more information, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's wildlife notebook pages.
