Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Bat Identification

While doing fieldwork along the local creeks yesterday, I spotted this bat flying around in the middle of the afternoon over the creek, then perching on a nearby tree. I'm pretty inexperienced in bat ID, so let me know if you can figure this one out:

Posted by slybird at 8:12 PM
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8 comments:

  1. Patrick B.May 21, 2008 at 8:30 PM

    I'm no bat expert, but I did look in my Stokes Bat Guide - which is a good little book. The most common NY bats are Big Brown, Little Brown, and Northern Long-eared. They are all pretty similar. How big was it?

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  2. slybirdMay 21, 2008 at 8:38 PM

    I had a ruler in my pack, but didn't measure it. It was clearly agitated by my presence when I approached for better pictures. I have no real experience for relative bat sizes, so I can't really make an accurate guess.

    ~ Nick

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  3. AnonymousMay 21, 2008 at 9:12 PM

    Bats are tricky for sure!

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  4. heidiMay 21, 2008 at 11:16 PM

    I'm just barely getting to know bats, but I don't see why it wouldn't be Little Brown.

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  5. AnonymousMay 22, 2008 at 8:19 AM

    Also, not a bat expert, but thanks to some research and a class or two, I'd take a guess and say it was a Little Brown, but it's a tough call.

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  6. The Zen BirdfeederMay 26, 2008 at 7:20 PM

    This winter, bats were emerging from hibernation prematurely, many with what has been called "white-nose syndrome". Many of them died, seemingly from starvation.
    Thought you might be interested in reading more if you hadn't already heard of this issue, which from what I hear is still being investigated.
    http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html

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  7. UnknownMay 26, 2008 at 10:52 PM

    Nick...tsk tsk, don't you remember anything from Charlie's mammals labs, or perhaps TAing them?

    Anyhow, I'm 99% confident it's a Little Brown. They can be very tricky to tell apart, and size is useless most of the time; but there are two good features to use.

    The first is the spacing of the lines in the skin-fold between the leg and tail...this is the one Charlie taught us, but I can't recall it.

    The other is the size/shape of the snout. Little Browns like your guy have an anteriorly-compressed snout that seems almost "mashed in", and is also nearly entirely covered in fur.

    Big Browns have a more elongated, hairless snout. Here are some photos for comparison:

    Little Brown - http://www.batguys.com/services/bats/Bat-Article-images/littlebrownbatvs.JPG.jpg

    Big Brown - http://www.batguys.com/services/bats/Bat-Article-images/bathead.JPG.jpg

    --Scott

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  8. slybirdMay 29, 2008 at 5:42 PM

    Thanks all. I am now confident it is a Myotis, and probably M. lucifugus. There are other Myotis in NY though, but I don't know how to tell them apart.

    Scott - I never liked mammals. I remember everything else Charlie taught me (I think).

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