Tennessees Bats

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TennesseesBats
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Brought to you by the Tennessee Bat Working Group
TNBWG Partnership and Communication
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Tennessee Bat Working Group

• The people shown holding bats in this
  presentation are wildlife biologists who have
  received rabies pre-exposure shots
• They are professionals who work to conserve bats
  and other wildlife
• You should never handle a bat or any other wild
  animal

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Bat Myths and Facts
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Myths and Facts

• Myth Bats are flying rodents
• Fact Bats are actually more closely related to
  primates than rodents
• Myth Bats get caught in peoples hair because
  theyre blind as a bat
• Fact Bats have excellent vision. Combined with
  echolocation they generally dont run into
  things. They wont get in your hair.

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Myths and Facts

• Myth All bats carry rabies
• Fact Less than one half of one percent
• Myth All bats drink blood
• Fact Only vampire bats and they dont live here

A colony of common vampire bats.
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Bat Classification

• Phylum Chordata
• Animals with a backbone
• Subphylum Vertebrata
• Animals with vertebrate backbone
• Class Mammalia
• Hair
• Live birth and nurse young
• Order Chiroptera
• Chiro (Hand) Ptera (Wing )
• 1,100 species worldwide

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ChiropteraChiro (Hand) Ptera (Wing )
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Chiroptera Contains Two Groups

• Megachiroptera
• Dont occur in Tennessee
• Large and live in the Old World tropics
• They are called flying foxes because their faces
  are fox-like
• Eat fruit or drink nectar from flowers
• They use their vision to find food, typically do
  not use echolocation
• Microchiroptera
• All Tennessee bats are microchiroptera
• Small and mostly eat insects
• Use echolocation to find their food

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Bat Morphological Adaptations
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Adaptations flight

• Bats are the only true flying mammals
• Other mammals glide, like flying squirrels

Gray bats leaving their roost.
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Adaptations echolocation

• Bats emit high frequency sound pulses that help
  them see to move and hunt in the dark
• Many bats have unusually large ears or odd
  looking structures in their ears to aid in
  echolocation

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Adaptations cold weather

• Some species have fur on their tail membrane and
  parts of their wing membrane so they can
  withstand colder weather

Hoary Bat
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Predator Prey Interactions

• Insectivores (insect eaters) - all of TNs bats
• Fruit eaters
• Nectar feeders 3 species along the US/Mexican
  border in Texas and Arizona
• Highly specialized
• Frogs
• Fish
• Vampires Mexico, Central, and South America
• Bats as prey owls, snakes, raccoons, and cats

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Why are bats important?

• Control insects (Insectivores)
• Eat 50 100 of body weight every night
• Colony of 1,000 bats can consume 22 pounds of
  insects nightly
• Help control crop pests like beetles and moths as
  well as mosquitoes

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Why are bats important?

• Pollination
• Nectar feeding bats
• Some tropical flowers bloom only at night and
  have special shapes and scents that attract bats
• Seed dispersal
• Fruit eating bats
• Important for reforestation in the tropics

Lesser long-nosed bat at Hummingbird feeder.
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Bat Habitats
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Habitat Summer

• Roosting - where bats stay during the day
• Most species of bats segregate into bachelor
  colonies and maternity colonies where the pups
  are raised
• Some congregate in large or small groups
• Some roost alone

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Habitat Summer

• Roosting locations
• Trees
• Hollow trees
• Under bark
• Hang from branches
• Buildings
• Caves

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Habitat Summer

• Foraging - hunting for insects at night
• Rivers and streams
• Ponds, swamps, lakes
• Fields
• Forests
• Roads and trails

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Habitat Winter

• Hibernation
• Build stores of fat to make it through the winter
• Places they hibernate
• Caves - many bats
• Trees red bats, silver-haired bats
• Under leaf litter on the ground red bats
• Buildings many bats
• Red and big brown bats will awake on warm winter
  days to feed

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Habitat Winter

• Migration
• Gray bats will migrate great distances to find a
  suitable cave in which to hibernate
• Silver-haired bats migrate south to hibernate and
  to northern US and Canada in the Summer
• Hoary bats migrate south for the winter and stay
  active

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Bat Conservation
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Tennessee has Two Species of Endangered Bats

• Gray Bat
• Indiana bat

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Reasons for Decline of Gray Bat

• Habitat loss
• Cave commercialization
• Cave flooding
• Trash in sink holes
• Disturbance during hibernation run out of fat
  stores before spring and die
• Disturbance at maternity colony young fall to
  the cave floor and die

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Reasons for Decline of Indiana Bat

• Disturbance during hibernation
• Winter habitat loss
• Cave commercialization
• Cave flooding
• Trash in sink holes
• Summer habitat loss
• Loss of roost trees
• Lack of information about their ecology needed to
  protect the species

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How can you help bats?

• Help dispel bat myths
• Dont disturb hibernating or maternity colonies
  when spelunking (caving)
• Put up a bat house
• Maintain wooded buffers around streams and
  wetlands
• Limit pesticide use
• Volunteer at a cave gating

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Cave Gates

• Protect bats from human disturbance
• Designed and built so they dont
• interfere with bats movements
• change air flow and temperature of cave

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Tennessee Has 15 Species of Bats

• Gray bat
• Indiana bat
• Northern long-eared bat
• Little brown bat
• Southeastern bat
• Eastern small-footed bat
• Eastern pipistrelle
• Big brown bat

• Evening bat
• Rafinesques big-eared bat
• Red bat
• Seminole bat
• Hoary bat
• Silver-haired bat
• Brazilian free-tailed bat

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Gray bat

• 11-13 inch wingspan
• Only has one pup per year
• Lives in caves in the summer and winter
• Travel great distance between caves
• Endangered species

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Indiana bat

• 9-11 inch wingspan
• Summer in hollow trees, under loose bark
• Hibernate in caves
• Only has one pup per year
• Endangered species

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Northern long-eared bat

• 9-11 inch wingspan
• Summer in barns, old houses, behind shutters,
  under loose bark
• Hibernate in caves
• Only has one pup per year

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Little brown bat

• 9-11 inch wingspan
• Females form maternity colonies in barns, old
  houses, and attics
• Hibernate in caves
• Only has one pup per year

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Southeastern bat

• Species of Concern in TN
• 9-11 inch wingspan
• Females form maternity colonies in caves, mines,
  hollow trees
• Hibernate in caves, mines, buildings
• Active year round further south
• Usually has twins

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Eastern Small-footed bat

• Species of Concern in TN
• 8-10 inch wingspan
• Females form maternity colonies in caves,
  buildings
• Hibernate in caves and mines
• Only has one pup per year

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Eastern pipistrelle

• 8-10 inch wingspan
• Lives in trees and caves in the summer
• Hibernates in caves
• Usually has twins

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Big brown bat

• 13-16 inch wingspan
• Lives in hollow trees, behind loose bark, barns,
  old houses, and attics
• Hibernate in caves, mines, and buildings
• Usually has twins

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Evening bat

• 10-11 inch wingspan
• Lives in hollow trees and old buildings in the
  summer
• Nobody knows where or if they hibernate
• Usually has twins

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Rafinesques big-eared bat

• Species of Concern in TN
• 10-12 inch wingspan
• Lives in hollow trees, old buildings, caves, and
  mines in the summer
• Hibernate in caves and mines
• Only has one pup per year

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Red bat

• 11-13 inch wingspan
• Hangs in trees and looks like a brown leaf
• Hibernates under leaves on the ground
• Has one to four pups

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Seminole bat

• 12 inch wingspan
• Hangs in trees, under loose bark, mostly in
  Spanish moss
• Hibernates?
• Has two to four pups

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Hoary bat

• 15-16 inch wingspan
• Hang in clumps of leaves in trees
• Northern populations migrate south, sometimes in
  groups
• Usually has twins

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Silver-haired bat

• 10-12 inch wingspan
• Found in TN in the winter and during Fall/Spring
  migration
• Summer roosts in Northern States and Canada under
  loose bark, in tree hollows, or abandoned bird
  nests
• Hibernates in buildings, caves, mines, rock
  crevices, and hollow trees
• Has one or two pups

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Brazilian free-tailed bat

• 11-14 inch wingspan
• Summer roosts in building behind shutters and in
  attics
• Not known to hibernate and is probably rare or
  accidental in TN
• Only has one pup per year

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Bats and Rabies
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Rabies

• NEVER PICK UP OR HANDLE A BAT OR ANY OTHER WILD
  ANIMAL
• A BAT ON THE GROUND IS A SICK BAT
• You will feel it when a bat bites you, but some
  people (like small children) may not be able to
  communicate that a bite has occurred
• A bite may not look serious and may not be
  visible, but it is just as serious as a dog or
  raccoon bite and medical attention should be
  sought

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What to Do if Bitten

• Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water
• Seek medical attention immediately
• The following information will help your health
  care provider assess your risk
• the geographic location of the incident
• the type of animal that was involved
• how the exposure occurred (provoked or
  unprovoked)
• the vaccination status of animal
• whether the animal can be safely captured and
  tested for rabies

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Rabies Reality Check

• About one person a year dies from rabies in the
  United States
• Chance of getting rabies is less than 1 in 200
  million
• Things that are more likely to kill you than
  rabies
• Your dog
• Bee sting
• Lightning
• Your power mower

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Sources of Information

• TN Bat Working Group (www.state.tn.us/twra/tnbwg/t
  nbwg.html)
• Bat Conservation International (www.batcon.org)
• Choate, J.R., J.K. Jones, Jr., and C. Jones.
  1994. Handbook of Mammals of the South-central
  States. Louisiana State University Press, Baton
  Rouge, Louisiana.
• Schwartz C.W., and E.R. Schwartz. 1981. The
  Wild Mammals of Missouri. University of Missouri
  Press, Columbia, Missouri. 356 pp.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). 1982.
  Gray Bat Recovery Plan. Denver, CO.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). 1999.
  Agency Draft Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalis)
  Revised Recovery Plan. USFWS, Ft. Snelling,
  Minnesota.