Big brown bat

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Big Brown Bat

A big brown bat approaches a wax moth (Galleria mellonella), which serves as the control species for the studies of the tiger moths. The moth is only "semi-tethered," allowing it the mobility to fly evasively.

Conservation status

Least concern

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Vespertilionidae
Genus:	Eptesicus
Species:	E. fuscus

Binomial name

Eptesicus fuscus
(Palisot de Beauvois, 1796)

The Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) is larger in size than comparative species of bats, from about 4 to 5 inches (10 - 13 cm) in length and weighing 1/2 to 5/8 ounce. The fur is moderately long, and shiny brown. The wing membranes, ears, feet, and face are dark brown to blackish in color.

Big brown bats are nocturnal, roosting during the day in hollow trees, beneath loose tree bark in the crevices of rocks or man-made structures, such as attics, barns, old buildings, under eaves and behind window shutters. Big brown Bats navigate through the night skies by use of echolocation, producing ultrasonic sounds through the mouth or nose. Together with the Hoary Bat (Lasurius cinereus), big brown bats are the only vespertilionids to produce audible sound during flight. Its voice is a click or a sound like escaping steam.

1 Diet
2 Hibernation
3 Life Cycle
4 Subspecies
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Diet

Big brown bats are insectivorous, eating many kinds of night-flying insects including beetles and wasps which they capture in flight. This causes the sudden, frequent changes in direction.

[edit] Hibernation

Big brown bats hibernate during the winter months, often in different locations than their summer roosts. Winter roosts tend to be natural subterranean locations such as caves and underground mines where temperatures remain stable; it is still unknown where a large majority of big brown bats spend the winter. If the weather warms enough, they may awaken to seek water, defecate, and even breed.

[edit] Life Cycle

Big brown bats mate sporadically from November through March. After the breeding season, pregnant females separate themselves into maternity colonies. Maternity colonies are most likely to occur in man-made environments such as the attics of buildings and other similar locations since female bats tend to choose areas with high daytime temperatures in which to raise their young.

The young bats, averaging two to a litter, are born in late May or early June. The baby bats are nursed in the roost and then left there in the evenings while the females fly out to feed. When the young are between three and four weeks of age, they begin to leave the roost for their first flights. Big brown bats are a long-lived species, with some specimens having lived for as long as 18 years.

[edit] Subspecies

Eptesicus fuscus fuscus (Palisot de Beauvois)
Eptesicus fuscus pallidus (Young)

The subspecies Eptesicus f. fuscus occurs in the entire eastern half of the U.S. except Florida. The subspecies Eptesicus f. pallidus occurs in Utah.