Spotted Bat - Sierra Club BC
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Spotted Bat

CAN BE FOUND IN:

Spotted Bat

Euderma maculatum 

Appearance 

These bats have black fur with white spots and a white belly, large (four centimetres long) pink ears and a wingspan of about 30 centimetres. 

Range & Habitat 

Spotted bats occur from small areas in the Okanagan, Thompson River, Similkameen and Caribou areas in southern B.C., into the US down to Arizona and New Mexico. They live in ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests in the summer. They sleep in canyons and cliffs, and come into the dry desert areas in late summer and early winter. In B.C., they are found in the Southern Interior Ecoprovince. 

Reciprocal Relationships 

Spotted bats have a great gift of communication. Since bats are nocturnal beings, they catch their prey using echolocation. This is a series of high-pitched squeaks that bounce off prey to tell the bat where it is located. Unlike other species of bats, humans can hear spotted bat squeaks. These bats eat night-flying moths and sometimes beetles.  

Spotted bats mate in the spring, and one young is born in early summer. Their babies have large ears at birth, and the mother can fly with her young hanging onto her belly. In fact, these bats have the biggest ears out of any species in North America! 

Threats to spotted bats include disturbance from recreation uses (like rock climbing and hiking), disturbance of riparian areas, and predation on the young when they first leave their parents. However, people are working to protect riparian areas, and provide adequate foraging habitat near the homes of bats. 

Status 

COSEWIC: Special Concern 
CDC: Blue. Biologists do not know the number of spotted bats living in B.C., but they think it isn’t very many. 

More Information 

If you belong to a First Nation with a story or piece of information not represented here and you would like to share more about this species, please email us at education@sierraclub.bc.ca

Photo Credit

Paul Cryan Via Wikimedia Commons

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