Presenting

the oneand only

Virginia Big-Eared

Bat

by Aimee Claire Whitehurst

…its ears are SOOOO big!

This bat is called the Virginia Big-Eared Bat because…

WOW!!! Look at those ears!

Description*The Virginia Big-Eared Bat is a medium sized bat.

*This bat is about 3.5-4 inches tall. Their ears are more than one inch tall.

*They are pale to brown on the back and light brown underneath.

*They weigh less than ½ ounce. That’s about the weight of two nickels!

HabitatThe Virginia Big-Eared Bat prefers limestone caves.

They like for their caves to be pretty cold.

*The Virginia Big-Eared Bat lives in eastern Kentucky, eastern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and northern South Carolina.

PreyBig-eared Bats prefer to eat insects, spiders, and moths.help

!!Yummy!Yikes

!

Adaptations that help the Big-Eared

Bat find foodThe Virginia Big- Eared Bats’ ears help them detect tiny objects such as moths and other insects by hearing echoes. The bat makes clicking noises that bounce off the object into the bats’ ears. They make more than 200 clicks a second!

Adaptations that help the Big-Eared

Bat moveThe Virginia Big-Eared Bats’ big ears and their clicking noises allow them to fly with precision at night and in the blackness of caves. They can find tiny insects and fly precisely to them just by using their sense of hearing.

The Virginia Big-Eared Bat is endangered because……humans disturb them

while they are hibernating in their cave roosts.

They survive during the winter on a small amount of stored fat. Every time they are disturbed, they lose some of that fat. They could starve to death before spring if they are disturbed too much.

Breeding

• Female Virginia Big-Eared Bats form colonies in caves to raise their young.

• Each female has a single baby, and it is called a “pup.”

• Pups can fly when they are just three weeks old.

• Mom Big-Eared Bats let their babies go when they are six weeks old.

How can we help?Since humans have discovered that these bats are endangered, they are starting to do something about it. Humans have put gates over the entrances to the caves that the bats use when they are hibernating so they don’t get disturbed.

More Interesting facts about

the Virginia Big-Eared Bat• Most of the world’s Big-Eared Bats

hibernate in just 3 caves. More than 5,360 hibernate in one cave in West Virginia!

• Virginia Big-Eared Bats travel no more than 4o miles away from their cave throughout their life.

• The oldest Big-Eared Bat on record was 16 years and 5 months old.

The End!