Bats of Saskatchewan - Hibernating Bats

Little Brown Bats typically spend their summers roosting in buildings, trees, rock crevices, and caves. In the winter they hibernate in caves, mines and sometimes buildings. If these bats hibernate in caves, then where do the Saskatchewan bats go? We don't actually know; help us find them by reporting your bats.

Little Brown Bats favour aquatic insects, often feeding on swarming  insects such as midges, beetles, moths, caddisflies, mayflies and mosquitoes.  These bats can eat half their body weight in insects every night, and nursing mothers can eat 100% of their body weight every night. 

During hibernation, a Little Brown Bat's body temperature may drop to just 6.5 degrees Celsius. They can go 30 minutes without taking a breath, and their heart rate can drop to only 10 beats per minute. This is compared to the over 1000 beats a minute they experiences during flight! 

Often found flying around cities, these bats typically inhabit buildings and bat boxes over the summer.  Females form large colonies (300) and males aggregate in smaller groups.  In winter, they may hibernate in buildings, caves, mines or even storm sewers.

Big Brown Bats favour beetles, but also snack on moths, flies and wasps. Their powerful jaws allow them to chew easily through hard exoskeletons. 

Big Brown Bats are one of the fastest flying bats in Canada. They can reach speeds of 65 km/h. The fastest bat ever recorded was a Mexican Free-Tailed Bat, at 160 km/h (that's faster than a cheetah!)

In the south, Long-Eared Bats typically roost in vertical, covered rock crevices, but in the north, they are typically found roosting in similar openings conifer trees. 

Long-Eared bats are capable of catching insects in flight, and also grabbing them from the ground or trees. Their strong teeth and jaws allow them to specialize on eating beetles.

Despite being a lot smaller than other Saskatchewan bats the Long-Eared Bat has the longest ears of any Saskatchewan bat, at over 2 cm! These are also the longest ears of any Myotis ("mouse eared") species. When bent forward, they even extend a few millimeters past their noses.

Western Small-Footed Bats roost primarily in caves and cliff-faces, but also in small cracks and openings in places like trees and manmade structures.

Western Small-Footed bats hunt moths, beetles and flies near bodies of water and steep hillsides.

The Western Small-Footed bat is small, but relative to their size, their feet are even smaller.

Northern Long-Eared Bats roost in trees and human structures during the summer, either alone, or in small groups, though mothers with pups form larger groups. In the winter, this species moves to caves to hibernate in groups with hundreds of other bats, often including other species of bat.

Northern Long-Eared Bats are particularly good at navigating cluttered environments like forests. Unlike most insectivorous bats, they typically snatch insects off of the surfaces of leaves and the like, in a process known as "gleaning".  This species mostly favours moths, but they also eat beetles and other insects.

While their ears are slightly shorter than the ears of Myotis evotis, the Northern Long-Eared Bat has longer ears, wings and tails than most Myotis of similar size, and can be distinguished from Little Brown Bats by a longer pointed "tragus", which is a protrusion covering the front of the ear.