Oklahoma Bat Facts

Oklahoma Bat Facts
By: Carol Bunyard

There are 45 different bat species native to the United States. Of these, 22 species are native to Oklahoma.
All 22 bat species native to Oklahoma are insectivorous. The only fruit bats in Oklahoma are exotic species living in zoos (The two nectar eating and one fruit eating species native to the United States all live in subtropical climates.).
The reproductive rate for bats is very slow compared to that of other mammals of comparable sizes. Most bat species give birth to only one or two pups per year. The red bat (Lasiurus borealis), however, typically gives birth to one litter per year of one to four pups..
Many bats are very long-lived. There are records of little brown bats living 33 or more years.
Over half of the bat species in the United States are endangered or have declining populations. This is largely due to human interference and encroachment.
One small bat can eat over 1,000 mosquito sized insects in just one hour. Nursing mothers eat over twice this amount.
Bats are not blind, they are not rodents, and they do not become entangled in people's hair.
Oklahoma's bats use echolocation--the emission of ultrasonic sound waves used as a sort of "sonar"-- for navigation and for hunting insects.
The red bat (Lasiurus borealis) is North America's only bat with sexually dimorphic color variations (males and females are colored differently).
The bats seen most frequently at WildCare are the red bat (Lasiurus borealis), the evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis), the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), and the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis).