 Bats
of Indiana
Hoary Bat
A Hoary Bat flying near a
cave
drawing by CES Media Club
| Scientific
Name: Lasiurus
cinereus Description:
This
bat is a light brown color and has some
whitish tipped fur. It weighs around an
ounce and is one of the largest bats in
the United States. It has a yellow
"collar" of fur under its chin.
Its ears are short and round. It has a
sixteen inch wingspan!
Population:
The
Hawaiian Hoary bat is endangered. There
is no real data on the actual population
trends of the Hoary bat, but they are
considered relatively common throughout
the northern range.
Food: This bat
eats late in the evening. It is an
insectivorous so it eats a lot of insects
like moths, flies, grasshoppers, beetles
and other insects. It uses echolocation
to find its prey.
Range:
The
Hoary bat is found in all fifty states in
the United States. It is also found in
South America, Canada and even the
Caribbean Islands. It lives in forested
areas.
Reproduction:
They
usually have twins in late Spring or
early Summer. They group together in
mating season but are considered solitary
and do not have colonies.They usually
have two babies in May, June or early
July.
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The hoary bat
usually lives alone or just with a small family
group.
They like to live in forest areas and like to
spend their days hanging
in the trees covered with foliage on top but open
underneath.
They have been found to go back to the same tree
to roost each
season, if the tree is undisturbed.
A Hoary bat
(c) Merlin D. Tuttle
Bat Conservation International
They do migrate
during fall and spring. They can even be seen
flying on warmer winter days. They are very fast
at flying.
In fact, they are estimated to fly up to speeds
of 60 miles per hour!
Dr. Clark
McCreedy, a wildlife biologist, had this to say
about the Hoary bat...
"Even people
who are not fascinated by bats agree that
the frost-colored fur of the hoary bat is down right
attractive!"
Hoary Bat
(click on the photograph to see larger image)
(courtesy Dr. Clark McCreedy)
The Hoary bat hanging in a
tree
(drawing by CES Media Club)
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References/Resources
Drawings
of Hoary Bat by
Cannelton Elementary Media Club
Top photograph
of the Hoary bat is
(c) Merlin D. Tuttle
Bat Conservation International
Bottom
photograph of the Hoary
bat is courtesy of
Dr. Clark McCreedy
All other photographs belong to
CES Media Club
BOOKS:
Bats
of the United States
by
Michael J. Harvey, J. Scott Altenbach,
and Troy L. Best, Arkansas Game
& Fish Commision and the U. S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, copyright 1999
Those
Amazing Bats by
Cheryl Mays Halton
Dillon Press, New York copyright 1991
WEBSITES:
Kentucky
Bat Working Group
http://www.biology.eku.edu/bats.htm
ENature
http://enature.com/fieldguides/
Bat
Conservation International
http://www.batcon.org
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Comments? Questions?
You can e-mail us at:
jgoble@cannelton.k12.in.us
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