Hibernating Bats

[Tony Anders]

Ok, here goes another silly question.

If we see a bat hanging in the cave, how do you know if it is merely sleeping for the day or in hibernation. I hate running across them due to the fact I never know. We try to look around when we are caving and if I see a lump or dark spot on the ceiling I normally treat it as a bat and try to get closer to confirm whether it is or not, without shining the light directly on it. I know bats aren't blind and don't want the light waking them.

Has anyone had any trouble with a bat flying towards your lights. My son is spooked from bats and was hesitant about going into the cave because of them. I don't want him to have a bad "bat" experience so I am asking this about this info.

I personally have never had any bats come towards the light or even move while we are in the caves. I hope this means we are doing a good job not disturbing them. The closest I have come to disturbing a bat was when I turned and there it was about a foot from my head. It startled me, but the bat never moved...

Anyone that has info about bats and hibernation, give me a holler..


Thanks again...I know someone will have info for us...

[Brian Roebuck]

Hi Tony,
We moved your post to this topic "Bats" so that it easier for people interested in bat topics to find it.

OK here are some answers! I am no expert but I do have some experience. Go to www.batcon.org for much more info on bats from real experts. Usually bats are in hibernation from late fall to early spring since their food supply (insects) are hard to find in winter months. So if you spot one hanging very still during that time of year he is likely hibernating. I have heard of some species of bats that wake when weather is warm and feed on available insects and then go back to sleep and hibernate until spring. Since you are in Kentucky I would say all the bat species in your area are hibernating now.

Some bats are a bit more aggressive acting than others. I have experienced bats flying at my headlamp and turning sharply away just before they hit in several bat colony caves (during times when they were not in hibernation of course). Since bats use sound (echolocation) to fly through the dark standing still makes it easier for them to avoid you. I suspect they were trying to scare me away from the main bat colony but I am not sure about this. Remember bats rear their young during spring and summer in certain warm caves and this is called a maternity colony when they are all gathered together in one big colony. Different species can act differently too. Some have big colonies and huddle together for protection and warmth (such as Gray bats and Indiana bats) and some are almost loners and hang by themselves (pipistrelles, little brown bats, etc). A healthy bat will not usually hit you in flight unless you are in a narrow restricted flight path and there are lots of bats flying through it. Tell your son that wearing a helmet, gloves, and long sleeve clothes is good protection from accidental contact with bats. I doubt he will ever get hit by a bat in flight though.

All cavers try to be careful of disturbing bats. Even so you sometimes knock them off their perch accidentally usually in tight spots. I once knocked a bat off the ceiling while trying to get through a crawl and it attached to my back. We carefully let it climb off and onto some rock where it went back to sleep. Don't touch them without leather gloves if this happens since rabies are possible (although not that likely) and bites can hurt. Usually they crawl and climb really well and can find a good place to reattach themselves to the cave quickly.

Bats can be disturbed just by you passing through the cave. Often they know you are in the cave before you make much noise or get within sight of them. They can wake up some time after you pass by since it takes time for them to get active while they are hibernating. If they get woken up too many times during the winter they can burn too much stored energy and starve to death by spring. That is why it is important to not disturb the same bats in the same cave many times during the winter.

It is always good to avoid contact with bats and to not disturb them when they are hibernating or rearing their young.

[Azurerana]

The fact that the bat has ice droplets on it is often a giveaway..*|:-) They sleep during the day spring to fall, but disturbance then isn't a major problem as long as it's not a maternity colony. If a cave is often used by thundering hordes of cavers during the summer, the bats will often move elsewhere.

With the way our weather is getting weird, (and yes, bat closures extend beyond this) the critical non-disturbance months in the Midwest/TAG are Dec., Jan., and Feb. Bugs often persist far into November, and reoccur around mid-March. But there are always early to sleep and slugabed bats--just like people.

[Tony Anders]

Thanks Dr. Beaner for helping with your info. I didn't think to check for a Bat section before I posted the question.

I think the info has made my son,Shawn, a little more comfortable about bats. He told me he was concerned with them sucking out his blood. I told him they wouldn't do that, cause Dad wouldn't let them anyhow

[L Roebuck]

By chance has Shawn seen any scary vampire bat movies?

To my knowledge the bat species that feed on blood are not even native to our area. Let Shawn know that those specie are native to areas like Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Some of the more common insect eating bat species that us cavers might encounter in caves in the southern U.S. are Little Brown Bat, Big Brown Bat, Rafinesque's Big eared Bat, Eastern Pipistrellus, Indiana Bat, and Gray Bat. The bats in our area prefer to munch on tasty mosquito's, crunchy moths, etc.

I have an extra copy of Bats of the United States that I would be happy to mail to you and Shawn. If you would like to have it just Private Message me your mailing information.

[jonsdigs]

Warm weather waking bats
London Free Press
Sat, January 6, 2007
By CP

REGINA -- The warm winter weather is driving them a little batty.

Mark Brigham, a University of Regina biology professor, says there's been a higher than usual number of bat encounters lately.

Normally, they're hibernating at this time of year but with the rising temperature and a decrease in humidity, the bats have awakened.

"Just before Christmas, we had a flurry of calls when it went from cold to warm," said Brigham. "The bats have chosen places that don't stay cold enough and they lose all their fat reserves and they have to come out and find something to eat or die."

Brigham is the go-to guy when the bats wake up; he often gets calls to remove bats from buildings. So far this winter, Brigham said he has retrieved 15 to 20 bats from inside buildings.

Ideally, bats prefer a winter temperature of about plus two and high levels of humidity.

Article