Trivia question for Aug-18-2011

Carter picked this bat because they are still fired up from attending the recent Bat Blitz in NC.  Lets see how you do with this one.  These bats are agile night hunters equipped with super-sensitive hearing for locating elusive prey.  They specialize in hunting in dense woodlands, where other bats are at a disadvantage.

This species appears to prefer caves as roosting sites, but roosts in trees holes, buildings and bat boxes as well. The roosts in trees may be close to the ground. It hunts above woodland, often by day, and mostly for moths, gleaning insects from leaves and bark. This is one of the bats for which eyesight is more important than echolocation in finding prey.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what type of bat this is and tell us what are some of the major reasons for their recent decline.  Also, these guys struggle to catch enough food to match the energy it uses while hunting.  Tell us how they are able to survive in such conditions?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out to Stefan from Liverpool England for being the first with the correct answer.  The bat we featured is the Brown Long-Eared Bat.  The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat is a fairly large European bat. It has distinctive ears, long and with a distinctive fold. It is extremely similar to the much rarer grey long-eared bat which was only validated as a distinct species in the 1960s. An adult brown long-eared bat has a body length of 4.5-4.8 cm, a tail of 4.1-4.6 cm, and a wing length of 4-4.2 cm. The ears are 3.3-3.9 cm in length, and readily distinguish this from most other bat species. They are relatively slow flyers compared to other bat species.

The main treat that these guys face is prey shortages and the effects of poisons.  Many roosts and roof spaces have been destroyed or made lethal by chemicals for killing woodworm and other pests.  Insecticide use has also hit bats very hard; it wipes out their food supply and contaminates surviving insects.  Because of all this, these bats struggle to catch enough food to off set the energy used during hunting which is why they spend much of their life in a state of suspended animation.  Here is more on these crafty bats: Brown Long-Eared Bat

Thanks for playing along 😉