Oklahoma City's Best Bat Removal

Biology of Big Brown Bat: Appearance, Biology, Life Cycle, Habitat, Diet, Behavior

Appearance

The aptly named big brown bat has a glossy reddish-brown coat of fur. Despite having "big" in its name, the bat only weighs around 20 grams, and it has a wingspan of around 13 inches (roughly 35 centimeters).

These bats have a flat nose which — along with their wings — are hairless. As hunters, their mouths are lined with 32 sharp teeth.

Biology and Life Cycle

Like many other bat species, the big brown bat's mating season is during the fall. During this time, male and female bats will couple, but the female will not enter their pregnancy.

Instead, female bats then hibernate until spring. Only then do they enter their gestation period, where they will give birth to a young pup. Most big brown bats only have one child a year, though some do give birth to twins.

These pups are small, weighing only 5 grams at birth. They're also bald and blind, so they rely solely on their mother's protection for the first few days of their lives. Yet they quickly grow in size and strength, and they become fully grown within a month of being born.

During this time, the pups often stay in their roost as the mother goes out and hunts for them both. Yet after a few weeks, the pup becomes strong enough to start flying on its own.

Despite their quick progression into adulthood, these bats live for a very long time for animals of their size. In fact, the average life expectancy of a big brown bat is between 6 to 7 years out in the wild. Though they can easily live for twice that amount in captivity.

Habitat

The big brown bat is primarily found in North America, where it mostly resides in Southern Canada and the US. Yet these bats can also be found more to the south, where people have spotted them in the Caribbean and Colombia.

Big brown bats have adapted to many environments, which is why they're found in cities, forests, deserts, plains, and plenty of other areas as well.

Diet

Like most other bat species, the big brown bat is an insectivore. This means it primarily hunts and eats various insects. These include flies, cockroaches, beetles, and more.
These flying mammals have to eat a lot of insects a night to sustain their active lives, making them a great way to cut down on insect populations. This is just one of the ways that bats help people, as they hunt a lot of agricultural pests.

Behavior

The big brown bat is mostly active at night. This means that it is nocturnal like most other bat species. These nocturnal animals rest for most of the day, where they avoid large predators. Instead, they opt to hunt at night, where they can fly without fear of eagles and other large birds attacking them.

For hunting, these animals use echolocation. This technique involves emitting sounds around them and listening to the echoes or sounds bouncing back. These clever bats are able to navigate their environment and hunt prey by deciphering these sounds.

Not all bats hibernate, but big brown bats do. They either hibernate alone or in small colonies — often in caves or manmade structures.

During the spring and summer, these bats form maternity colonies. Here, the female bats work together to raise all their young. It provides the pups with a safe place to live, and it allows the mothers to share their efforts and provide food for all.