Tuesday, February 7, 2017

All About Bats


At our last UMNA meeting, our speaker was Jennifer Kindel, Wildlife Biologist with the SC Dept. of Natural Resources, who spoke about Bats.

Here are some things I learned about Bats.
1.     There are 14 different species in SC and 47 in the US. 
2.     They are the only mammals that fly.
3.     White Nose Syndrome found in Richland, Oconee, and Pickens.
4.     We shouldn’t fear them but fear handling them.
5.     They can bite you while you sleep and never know it.
6.     There are colonial bat species: Northern long eared Bat, Little Brown Bat, Brazilian Free-tailed Bat, Eastern small footed Bat, Southeastern Bat, Evening Bat, Tricolored Bat, Rafinesque’s Big-eared Bat, Big Brown Bat.
7.     There are tree bat species; Northern Yellow Bat, Seminole Bat, Eastern Red Bat, Silver-haired Bat.
8.     Cave and tree bats hibernate in cold weather.
9.     Sleep time: 4 months for Eastern Small footed Bat and 7 months for the Tricolored Bat
10.  They provide pest control.
11.  House bats – March to August is pup time. They have about 1 or 2 pups a year.
12.  Pups can fly in 4 weeks.
13.  They save the Ag Industry $115 million in SC ad $22.9 billion in the US.
14.  2 N. Long-eared bat found on SC Coastal Plain.
15.  Largest population: Big Brown, Brazilian free tailed bat, Eastern reds, Evening bat
16.  Bat Boxes need to be 14 feet off the ground with 6 hours of sunlight; away from clutter; the Bigger boxes are better with 3 or 4 bichambers.
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