To the BAT CAVE

Click, Oct 2009

Every spring, mother bats fly to certain safe, warm caves to give birth and raise their babies. Some of these nursery caves have only a few bats, but in others, thousands of bats cover the ceiling and walls.

When a baby bat is born, it cannot fly and it has no fur, but it has strong claws on its feet. It hooks those claws into a crack in the cave ceiling and hangs upside down to roost like a grown-up bat.

The mother bats leave their babies every evening to hunt for food. They return when the sky begins to grow light. Then each mother nurses her baby and spends the day sleeping in the dark cave.

Soon the baby bats are big enough to fly and hunt outside with their mothers. All summer long, the bats grow fat, eating as much as they can each night and sleeping in the nursery cave during the day.

When summer ends and the weather begins to get cold, the bats must find a new place to live. Some fly to warm places where food is plentiful in winter. Others fly to hibernation caves, where they sleep for the entire winter.

Hibernation caves are colder and wetter than nursery caves. The temperature may be just above freezing, and sometimes little drops of water cover the hibernating bats.

When a bat hibernates, its body temperature drops and its heartbeat and breathing slow down. Its body works so slowly that the bat uses barely any energy. It can live for months without eating, using the energy stored in the fat it gained in the summer.

It doesn't sound comfortable, but it's just right for a bat's long winter sleep.