Little Brown Bat Myotis lucifugus By: Krista Classification Kingdom : Animalia Phylum : Chordata Class : Mammalia Order: Chiroptera Family : Vespertilionissdae Genus : Myotis Species : lucifugus

Natural History

Bat fossils have been found that date back about 50 million years, but the bats of the ancient period very closely resembled the little brown bats we know now. Bats have been around for a very long time.

Before humans began to affect the number of bats, they were fine. Now humans like tribes or villages of humans kill little brown bats and destroy their houses so the number of bats is going down. When there were a lot of bats they used to fill the night sky like the passenger pigeon used to fill the day sky until they became extinct.

They were so cool to see at night because there were so many. They look like little bugs because they are so little. They are only 31/2 inches. I think that people should leave little brown bats alone because a lot of them are dying and soon they will be gone.

They should find a big area in the country, make a national park, and get two bats, a boy and a girl, so they can mate and make a lot of bats. Once there are like 100,000 bats they can let the bats go. Then they can look for another species that is almost extinct.

The ecology of little brown bats is they blend in well with their habitat because when it is hot out they don’t hibernate but when it is cold out they hibernate. So all summer long they look for food. They are mammals and animals because the kingdom is Animalia and their phylum is Chordata.  All vertebrates belong to this phylum.

Habitat

In the summer the bat colonies would rather be in hot weather because bats like hot weather. So they move to a place where the temperature is as high as 131 degrees Fahrenheit.

Usually the colonies are found in attics of people’s houses. Colonies are usually near bodies of water because of the types of insects that are available there and there are a lot of different types of insects near the ocean.

Some bats hibernate in the winter and stay in their caves until it gets hotter out or until it is not cold out. Bats hibernate in large groups like 100,000 bats or more in a cave at a time.

Bats have a big population when they hibernate because they get into groups that have 100,000 bats or more per cave. That is a lot of little brown bats, but they are small so it can’t be that bad. They don’t really need a lot of room because all they do is sleep. That is what you are supposed to do when you hibernate, sleep. That is hibernating. It is animals sleeping in caves or underground until it is summer or until it gets hotter out.

All bats live in communities or some people call it colonies. They have a big ecosystem, that is the study of the relationship between organisms and their environment. Bats love where they live because it is dark, comfortable for them, and they are used to living in caves. Bats make big and lots of habitats when they hibernate. Bats are a neat species because I have learned a lot about them and they are real cool mammals.

Present Status

The little brown bat has no special status but animals do eat them, like hawks, owls, raccoons, minks, and leopard frogs.

Physical Description

Little brown bats can be yellow orange, orange brown, red orange, and or dark brown. The height of a little brown bat is 3 1/2 inches. That is so small it can fit in the palm of your hand. The wing span is 10 inches. That is real little, too, but I don’t think you could fit that in the palm of your hand.

I think that they are warm blooded animals because their blood temperature stays the same all year long. They are vertebrates because they have a backbone. So being warm-blooded and vertebrates that makes them mammals and they are in the Phylum Chordata because they are vertebrates.

So everything works in a system because without systems we wouldn’t have a way of life. I think that bats are real little and little things die real fast, like ants. You could step on it and you were just walking. But bats aren’t that little so they won’t die as fast as ants but they do die fast.

When I was at my stepgrandmother’s I saw three bats flying around the church. I didn’t quite know what they were because I was real little. So I asked her what they were and she said that they were bats.

Diet and Feeding Habits

In one night a bat can eat half of its weight or about 600 mosquitoes an hour. In a way they are prey and predators. That would be about 100,000 tons of insects that bats have eaten a year. They are consumers because they eat insects and a lot of it. Bats eat more than humans in one night because humans can’t eat half of their body weight in one night. Humans are too big to eat that much and I don’t think that it is possible to eat that much.

Bats search for food at night. They use echolocation. Echolocation is a little sound that they make that tells them where their food is because they can’t see well. Other animals also use echolocation, like dolphins.

Bats are carnivores because they only eat flies and not plants. I don’t think you would ever see a bat eat plants.

Causes of endangerment

The little brown bat is dying out because a lot of other animals are eating them. They are so little so other animals might mistake them for insects because they are only 31/2 inches tall. Now that is not that big for a bat, but bats aren’t all that big. If I saw a little brown bat I would think it was a little bird or a insect because I don’t notice things right off the bat. They could be dying of cold weather and or loss of food. They can’t live in cold weather. That’s why they hibernate in the winter time. They also could be dying of loss of habitat like they could lose their caves to bears because bears hibernate, too, and they need a place to go or sleep to hibernate. So I think that bears are taking bats' caves and I don’t think that that is fair.

Personal Essay

How does diversity strengthen an ecosystem? If there was no diversity there wouldn’t be a food chain or life because to live you need food. With no diversity you can’t have food, because there wouldn’t be different kinds of animals and to live humans eat animals, mammals, and plants.  That is why we need diversity. Diversity is a good thing so we need to help all the animals and mammals that are coming close to being extinct.

Another reason why diversity is good is because all of the different kinds of bird are fun to watch sing in the summer time. It is also fun to watch the different kinds of fish swim in the water when I’m on a boat. I go on my grandparent’s boat a lot in the summer and it is a lot of fun.

I think that it was kind of cool to study bats now that we are almost done. I’m starting to like bats. I have never studied bats before because I love studying sharks. I have been studying them since third grade and it is fun now I like to study bats and sharks. After we are done with this expedition I will start studying sharks again because I find sharks very interesting and cool. I have learned a lot about little brown bats and sharks, all kinds of sharks, and I think it was fun studying bats and sharks.

I feel that people should help little brown bats because they are dying out and I don’t think that we need to lose bats just like we lost passenger pigeons. Bats are real cool because they are real little and I don’t know I just like them because now that I have studied them I started to like them. That big park in Maine that I thought we should build, I still think we should build it because it is a good idea and we should put all the Endangered Species, Threatened Species, and Species of Concern it there so we don’t lose that certain kind of animal. That would be real bad.

If I were a little brown bat I would have a lot of babies so that my kind of animal didn’t run out or die out. If any other bat was in trouble I would do anything to save it or help it stay alive until I could get help or until help arrived. It is always nice to help someone it need of help.

We need bats because they eat mosquitoes and trust me that is a good thing. I hate mosquitoes real bad because they annoy me. So it is always good to have something to eat the thing that annoys you or take away the things that annoys you. Bats pretty much eat mosquitoes. I think they eat dragon flies and lots of other flying insects. I think they eat ground insects, too, but I’m not quite sure.

Bibliography 

1.  Little Brown Bat, Little Brown Myotis.  . http://www.americazoo.com/goto/index/mammals/71.htm (Febuary 26, 2003)

2.  Myotis Lucifugus. September 18, 1996. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/myotis/m._ lucifugus$narrative.html ( March 6, 2003)

3.  Myotis Lucifugus, Little Brown Bat. 2002. http://www.batcon.org/discover/species/mylucif.html ( Febuary 27,2003)

4.  Bats.  . http://batgirl106.tripod.com/melissa/id14.html (March 3, 2003)