Big Brown bats are good mothers. They usually give birth to just one (sometimes two) babies in the spring and they can live to be nearly 20 years old in the wild. By contrast, most mammals of similar size give birth to multiple babies and can have multiple litters each year. Mice, for example, can have 40-60 babies in a year and have a life expectancy of about one year.

Bats are NOT rodents. They belong to the order Chiroptera, a name of Greek origin meaning "hand-wing," and they are more closely related to primates than they are to rodents. They're the only true flying mammal. While it's possible for Big Brown bats to become airborne from the ground, they usually need to swoop down from a height of at least a few feet in order to fly. Once in the air, however, they are remarkably agile and they can reach speeds up to 40 miles per hour.

Most species of bats navigate by means of echolocation, as do whales and dolphins. The biosonar they use for hunting is in a frequency range that humans cannot hear. In addition to the loud peeping sound that babies make, adults communicate with their young and with each other in a range that is audible to human ears. I've described the adults' communication vocalizations as a raspy "electronic" sound and some nights the chatter of the adults and babies in the louvers is quite loud!

While Big Brown bats usually don't carry their babies with them when they're foraging for food (and a nursing mother needs to eat her body weight in insects each night) they can and often do retrieve them if they drop from the roost.

Unfortunately, hawks and snakes prey on bats, but their most common predator is another nocturnal hunter, the owl.

There is so much misinformation, superstition and fear about bats. One long-standing myth is that "all bats" are rabid. Not true! Less than one-half of one percent of bats contract rabies, but that said, it is important to remember that any frightened or injured wild animal can bite! For that reason, no bat should be handled with bare hands. Wildlife rehabilitators who plan to work with rabies vector species must receive a series of pre-exposure rabies vaccinations before they can be licensed.

I think that our cultural view of bats has been largely shaped by frightening images of "Dracula" and Halloween, and by what people think they know about vampire bats. By contrast, in China bats are seen as symbols of happiness, longevity and good luck!

The unfortunate bat in a house--scared witless and usually being chased by a frantic human armed with a tennis racket or broom--is certainly going to look and sound as fierce as it possibly can. Additionally, most pictures of bats show them in a defensive posture, and that has only served to perpetuate the very negative and scary image that people have of them.

Many species of bats are in danger of extinction due to White Nose Syndrome, loss of habitat, and accidental or intentional eradication and extermination due to human fear and ignorance. Bats are such delicate creatures--so sensitively and superbly designed for the natural world. One can hope that these Big Brown bat babies are not the "bellwether" indicators of the effects of electromagnetic frequencies, radioactive contamination and heavy-metal pollutants that are wreaking havoc on our planet....

For more information about these highly intelligent, vitally important and gentle creatures, please follow the links below.