Facts About the Hoary Bat
Hoary bats are more widespread than any other bats in the Americas. They are found in every state except Alaska, and from Canada to Guatemala and in the Dominican Republic, Iceland, and Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Their habits make them one of the least-noticed bats. At night they fly alone when they hunt. During the day they sleep hidden in the thick foliage of secluded trees.
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Identification
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Hoary bats get their name from their hair, which is dark brown with white tips, giving them a frosty gray or hoary appearance. Most of the world’s 1,100 species of bats are relatively small animals that could fit easily in the palm of a person’s hand. Hoary bats are larger. Their body measures 5 to 6 inches from nose to tip of tail--the size of a hefty mouse--and their wingspan can reach 17 inches.
Breeding
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Most bat species are slow to reproduce, with mothers usually giving birth to a single pup. Hoary bats are different, giving birth on average to two pups a summer, and sometimes as many as four. The pups are born while the mother is hanging upside down in a tree. They hold onto their mother when she sleeps in the day and hang onto the tree when she hunts at night. The infants can fly by the time they are 30 to 33 days old.
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Feeding
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Hoary bats catch their food in flight. They are one of many bat species that use a process called echolocation to maneuver around objects in the dark and detect prey. They make short bursts of high-pitched sound and listen to the echoes with their highly-sensitive ears. In many regions moths are their favorite prey. They also eat flies, wasps, termites, grasshoppers, dragonflies and beetles. People consider many of the hoary bats' prey species as pests.
Flying
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Tree-roosting bats such as the Hoary bat usually are migratory because trees do not provide enough shelter for the winter, says Denise Tomlinson, director of Bat World Everglade, writing for the Organization for Bat Information (http://www.batconservation.org/content/Infobatarticles.html). An animated video, Seasonal Distribution of Hoary Bats, produced in May 2008 by Lance Everette of the U.S. Geological Survey, shows the bats reaching as far north as Canada during summer months, and concentrating in the southern United States and Mexico during the winter.
Population
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The Hawaiian hoary bat is listed as endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act. They are the only bat and the only land animal native to Hawaii. Loss of the trees in which the bats roost may be the main reason for their declining numbers, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hoary bat populations outside Hawaii are not considered threatened.
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