Where Bats Go When Winter Comes

At our home here in Mentone, for the past three years, we have hosted a small brown bat we have affectionately named Betty Bat. Why Betty, a girl’s name? She lives alone and takes care of herself all summer and winter long! The thinking is if it were a boy bat, it would have a companion!

Betty Bat at her summer home here in Mentone

Betty Bat stays all summer in the same spot, a small crevice on our back covered porch. She sleeps all day and flies out each evening to hunt and gather, returning before dawn. She stays until the weather gets colder and then she is gone for the winter. When the weather warms in the spring, she returns. So we wondered where Betty Bat goes in winter.

As the days shorten and the temperatures drop, bats in colder climates face a challenge: their primary food source, insects, disappears. To survive, bats have two main strategies: hibernation or migration.

Here atop Lookout Mountain, we have what is known as “cave bats” like the big brown bat and the little brown bat. This breed chooses to hibernate. This is a state of deep sleep or torpor, which allows them to conserve energy by dramatically slowing their metabolism. During torpor, a bat’s heart rate can drop from over 200 beats per minute to as low as 10, and its body temperature can fall to just a few degrees above freezing. Where do they hibernate? Caves and mines, rock crevices and man-made structures such as attics, walls, barns, and abandoned buildings. They can squeeze through incredibly small openings, as little as three-eighths of an inch, to find a suitable roost.

So, even though we do not know where Betty Bat goes, it is somewhere warm where she sleeps through the cold winters here in Mentone and returns to us each spring! Thank you, Betty Bat, for being a part of our family!

BY LYNNA MEADOWS MORTON