The Underworld Of Wildlife Viewing

Diane Tipton, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Statewide Information Officer

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Bats once had a serious image problem to overcome as underworld creatures carrying disease and prone to getting entangled in your hair. That was the past. Today, wildlife viewers appreciate these highly refined, nocturnal mammals and their unique abilities.

Traveling at 40 miles an hour, a bat can make a right-angle turn in just the length of its body. It navigates in the dark by echolocation, emitting ultrasonic pulses that echo back to it.

Montana bat enthusiasts can spot 15 different species of bats, a small subset of the over 900 different bat species that exist worldwide. To get started, a good place to view bats is Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park near Three Forks. The Caverns host one of only four known nursery colonies of Townsend’s big-eared bats in Montana. These bats are three and a half inches long, with a wingspan of about 11 inches.  

Only female Townsend’s big-eared bats come to the limestone Lewis and Clark Caverns in southwestern Montana, beginning in April, in search of a site to have their young. Around the second week of July the babies are born. Each female bat has a single newborn that clings to her for two to three days before it is strong enough to cling to the cave walls. The females nurse for five to six weeks.

When insects begin to disappear in early fall, the bats leave the caverns in search of a cave where temperatures get to just above freezing to trigger their hibernation. The Lewis and Clark Caverns are a constant 48 degrees year round. In winter, the Townsend’s big-eared bats go to hibernate in mines and caves in about a dozen known sites in Montana.

Worldwide, bats are grouped by what they eat. In the tropics, many bats feed on fruits, pollen, and nectar, pollinating plants and distributing up to 60,000 seeds in a single night. Some bats survive on a liquid diet of blood from birds and mammals, while others are true meat eaters, preying on birds, rodents, frogs, fish and other bats. There are only three species of vampire bats. Most species of bats, and all Montana bats, feed exclusively on insects, eating up to 600 insects an hour.

Unfortunately, many different species of bats in the state and around the globe are in decline, mainly due to the loss of quality habitat and the vandalizing of bat colonies. Because bats usually have one “pup” a year, they are extremely vulnerable to population losses. To help increase bat habitat, you can construct your own bat houses. Instructions for building bat houses are easily found on the Internet, including the home page of Bat Conservation International.

Summers in Montana offer plenty of bat viewing opportunities. Now is a great time to learn more about this intriguing, sometimes under-appreciated species.