• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • DONATE
  • SHOP
The Land Between

The Land Between

Explore - Learn - Inspire

  • About
        • Our Story
          • Our Goals
          • How We Operate
          • Staff and Council
          • Our Impact
          • Join Our Team
          • Partners and Supporters
        • About The Land Between Bioregion
          • Sacred Ecology
          • Natural Habitats
          • Wildlife & Species At Risk
          • People and Place
  • Projects
    • Blue Lakes
    • Working Watersheds
    • Turtle Guardians
    • Bird Buddies
    • Agwaamtoon Mshkiikii – Protecting Medicines
    • Native Gardens
    • Special Projects
  • Learning Centre
    • Consultation, Engagement, and Honouring Our Shared History
    • Living in the The Land Between
    • Invasive Species: Phragmites
    • Knowledge Circles
    • Community “Talks”
    • Regional Research
  • Get Involved
    • Wildlife Diary- Report a Species
    • Volunteer Nature Monitoring
    • Shop The Store
    • Donate
    • Work With Us
  • News & Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Camps
    • TLB Blogs
    • The Skink Newsletter

Introduction to Ontario’s Bats

February 28, 2023 by TLB
Image obtained from https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/11540852, (CC BY-NC)

By: Michael Allen Bryden

As the sun sets and dusk rolls in, you see a small black figure fly overhead in the sky, but that’s not a bird. You notice the erratic flight pattern of the figure and realize it could only be one thing. When the night comes in, the bats come out to play. Bats get a bad rep, but it is entirely undeserved. Very few bats in the world portray a vampire’s blood-sucking behavior, and you’ll be delighted to know that all of Ontario’s bat species do not drink blood. Ontario is home to 8 species of native bats, all of which are nocturnal aerial insectivores, meaning insect-eaters during nighttime. Not only do bats assist us in pest control, but they act as pollinators, pollinating important food crops and spreading seeds that one day become new trees. 

Roosting

During the day, bats are found hanging upside down within a roost. Most species of bats in Ontario roost in tight  spaces found in rock faces, loose bark, hollow trees, walls, attics, and bat boxes. These concealed places are not always immediately visible to the outside world. Guano, the name for bat poop, is often found beneath bat roosts projecting a strong smell of ammonia. Colonies found within these roosts can range anywhere from a few bats to thousands of individuals. Other bat species, such as Hoary Bat and Eastern Red Bat) form a different strategy, roosting in the foliage high up in trees. These species are often found roosting alone or in small groups. 

Feeding 

Being insectivores, bats have been known to eat moths, flies, beetles, dragonflies, and mosquitoes. In order to locate their prey in the dark, bats use a highly developed sense called echolocation. While echolocating, bats produce a series of high-frequency chirps that bounce around their surroundings and return back to their ears. Through interpreting these echoes, bats are able to visualize their environment. Although these chirps radiate at a frequency so high they often can not be heard by humans, they are unique to each species, and can often be identified by their frequency using acoustic recordings. How frequently a bat calls determines the accuracy of how they interrupt their surroundings. When they are hunting, bats emit a search phase pulse at regular intervals, but once they locate their prey, the chirps will increase in frequency until they are so close together that they sound like a buzz. This is known as a “feeding buzz” and allows the bat to hone in on its prey with as much accuracy as it possibly can. 

Reproduction

Very little is known about the reproduction practice of the Hoary Bat, Eastern Red Bat, and the Silver-haired Bat, but for the other species, the mating season begins in mid-August. During this time of year, bats congregate into large groups in abandoned mines or caves. These locations are known as swarming sites where bats gather to mate. Although little is known about swarming, it is known that very few bats roost within these sites during the day. Ontario’s bats are promiscuous, which means they mate with multiple partners in a single mating season.  Females are pregnant for 6-13 weeks depending on the species and start to give birth in early June. This is possible because of a female bat’s ability to store sperm in their reproductive tract during hibernation, and begin to ovulate and become pregnant the following spring. 

Compared to many other small mammals, bats have a very small litter size, with females usually giving birth to only a single pup each season. In the beginning, female bats sometimes carry their young while they fly and a small number of pups keep this manageable. This is different for one particular species, the Eastern Red Bat, which can have up to 5 pups a season. Around three to four weeks of age, the pups learn how to fly and begin their lives on their own. 

Overwintering

Due to the cold temperatures, and lack of insects, winter is an inhabitable time for bats in Ontario. To deal with this, bats in Ontario migrate. Cave bats migrate short distances to hibernate in other parts of the province, usually the Canadian Shield. These species of bats hibernate in caves or abandoned mines that remain above freezing temperatures. Provincially, 5 species, the Big Brown Bat, the Tricolored Bat, the Little Brown Myotis, the Northern Long-eared Myotis, and the Eastern Small-footed Myotis do so by entering an inactive state known as torpor. In this state, their metabolism slows and their body temperature drops to temperatures similar to that of their surroundings. In order for bats to maintain the energy needed to survive this torpor state all winter it is important that they are not disturbed. Disturbing a bat during hibernation will cause them to awake out of this state and burn important fat energy storage. On the other hand, Tree bats, which are the Hoary Bat, the Eastern Red Bat, and the Silver-hair Bat, migrate long distances to warmer climates for the colder season. These species are thought to migrate to the southern reaches of the United States and remain there until spring when the warmer weather returns. 

Ontario Bat Identification 

Ontario’s bats can be divided into two categories of cave bats, those who hibernate within their home range, and tree bats, those who migrate south for the winter. 

(The following 8 photos are credited to Brock Fenton)

Tree bats 

 

Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans)

  • Medium-sized bat
  • 9-11.5 cm in length 
  • 26-31 cm wingspan
  • 6-14 grams in weight 
  • Dark brown or black overall with white-tipped hairs on its back that give it a frosted look

Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus)

  • Ontario’s largest bat (still weighs less than a chipmunk)
  • 10-15 cm in length
  • 34-42 cm wingspan
  • 19-35 grams in weight
  • White-tipped hairs contrasting with grey body fur
  • Yellowish or toffee-colured face and throat
  • Short round ears with black edges 

Eastern Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis)

  • Medium-sized bat
  • 8.5-12.5 cm in length
  • 28-33 cm wingspan
  • 7-18 grams in weight
  • Yellowish orange to red fur
  • White tipped hairs that give off a frosted appearance 

 

Cave Bats

 

Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus)

  • Medium-sized bat
  • 9-13 cm in length
  • 32-39 cm wingspan
  • 11-26 grams in weight
  • Long dark brown fur evenly coloured across the back
  • Lighter coloured underside
  • Black hairless ear and wing membrane 

Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis subflavus)

  • One of Ontario’s smallest bats
  • 7-10 cm in length 
  • 19-26 cm wingspan
  • 5-8 grams in weight
  • Golden to greyish-brown appearance
  • Back hairs are tricoloured with a dark brown base, yellowish-brown midsection, and dusky grey tips

Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus)

  • Small-sized bat
  • 6-10 cm in length
  • 21-27 cm wingspan
  • 5-14 grams in weight
  • Brown glossy fur on back and light fur chin to tail on the underside 
  • Part of the difficult-to-identify Myotis complex 

Northern Long-eared Myotis (Myotis septentrionalis)

  • Small-sized bat
  • 7-10 cm in length
  • 21-26 cm wingspan
  • 6-9 grams
  • Dull yellowish-brown fur with a pale grey underside
  • Long rounded ears
  • Part of the difficult-to-identify Myotis complex 

Eastern Small-footed Myotis (Myotis leibii)

  • Smallest bat in Ontario
  • 7-9 cm in length
  • 21-25 cm wingspan
  • 3-7 grams
  • Coppery brown on the back and top of the head
  • Black around the muzzle and eyes that creates a masked appearance 
  • Part of the difficult-to-identify Myotis complex 

 

What you can do to help

 

In 2006, a Eurasian fungus made its way to North American that causes white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. Over the years this disease has killed millions of hibernating bats and caused the most dramatic population decline of any group of mammals ever observed. Nationally, Northern Long-eared Myotis, Little Brown Myotis, and the Tricolored Bat species are labeled as endangered and provincially the Eastern Small-footed Myotis, as well as the previous three, are considered endangered. Recently land conversion for residential development in bat-friendly areas, and the introduction of insecticides, is removing food for bats. Night lighting is also affecting predator-prey patterns. 

 

If you would like to help protect local bat populations you can… 

  • Avoid disturbing bats, especially while hibernating
  • Provide critical roosting habitat by building a bat box (https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Cover/Build-a-Bat-House)
  • Become involved in bat monitoring and protection (https://batwatch.ca/)
  • Prevent the spread of WNS by disinfecting your clothes before entering potential bat hibernation sites (i.e. caves)
  • Reduce night lighting by capping lights, using low wattage bulbs, installing motion sensors or timers on outdoor lights
  • Don’t use insecticides, but instead let bats do theri amazing job at curtailing mosquito populations (some bats can consume up to 4000 in one night). 

 

Category: Wildlife

About TLB

Previous Post:7 Cool Facts About Black-capped Chickadees
Next Post:The Perks of a Pepe-le-pew

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Line Dallaire

    July 20, 2023 at 11:02 am

    we own 161 acres of land, forest and hay fields. We lost all the bats and we are wishing to reintegrate our property.

    We would like to repopulate the bats on our land. if possible, biologists would follow the progress.

    Please inform us how to do it.

    Reply
    • Turtle Guardians

      August 6, 2024 at 4:07 pm

      Hi Lillian,
      This year we are offering Habitat Health Check ups- these are site visits on properties for free to help with monitoring and assessments of recovery actions. See our project list and you will find a tab to register

      Reply
  2. Ben Porchuk

    November 16, 2023 at 11:29 am

    Great article. Thank you. It’d be great to see a range map of where these species breed and where they go to overwinter. I love the Land Between!

    Reply
    • Turtle Guardians

      August 6, 2024 at 4:05 pm

      We are finally working on this! We have a new partnership with Toronto Zoo and are monitoring bats with the help of many landowners across the region!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

  • Home
  • The Region
  • The Charity
  • Shop
  • Donate

 

 

The Land Between is a National Charity #805849916RR0001.

Your support helps us celebrate, conserve, and enhance this important region. You can reach us at:

P.O. Box 1368, Haliburton, ON K0M 1S0
705-457-1222 | info@thelandbetween.ca

We respectfully acknowledge that The Land Between is located within Williams Treaty 20 Mississauga Anishinaabeg territory and Treaty 61 Robinson-Huron treaty territory, in the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg. We respectfully acknowledge that these First Nations are the stewards and caretakers of these lands and waters in perpetuity and that they continue to maintain this responsibility to ensure their health and integrity for generations to come.

Copyright © 2022 The Land Between