Bat Season in Montana: How Much Longer Will You See These Creatures?
Bat Week is coming to an end on October 31 and this is another time when we all appreciate the National Park Service for its creativity on social media. It may not be a bear doing the "Hippy, Hippy Shake" but their reference to "What We Do in the Shadows" was well played.
"Bat Season" is coming to an end soon too and I'll be the first to admit that I missed the day in Biology class when we talked about what bats do in winter. I think I assumed because they fly that they migrated, but it's actually their mammalian nature that influences their winter plans.
Did you know that bats hibernate?
A bat's most active time of year is typically May through November according to the Bat Conservation Trust which means that you may not see them much after the next couple of weeks (or you may find them trying to hibernate in your attic or barn). Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks says Montana has 15 different species of bats so it's likely this may be one of the creatures you see this time of year as they look for places to hibernate, similar to the way you might see more spiders at this time of year, too.
Read More: Dangerous Creepy Crawlers Are Coming: It's 'Spider Season' in Montana
A few years ago I worked on the top floor of a hotel building in Montana and came to work one day in winter and found a bat on the floor of the reception area that had seemingly fallen out of the ceiling. The bat had probably found a way into the attic of the hotel and was trying to hibernate.
I remember hoping the bat was dealt with humanely. Bats are a threatened species, not just in Montana but all over the country and I didn’t know this either but they’re important pollinators.
The video above has some fun facts about bats, like the fact that one of the things bats help pollinate is chocolate. One of the places you may hear about bats is Lewis and Clark Caverns. The caves have a large collection of bats and if you plan to visit, be sure you aren't wearing clothing that you might have worn to any cave in the past several years. This can be one of the ways that fungus is passed to bats that causes White Nose Syndrome, which can be deadly for bats.
Taking these precautions, and being mindful of how important bats are to our local ecosystem, we'll not only see them again in the spring, but for many years in the future.
For more interesting bat facts, keep scrolling.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BATS
Gallery Credit: MEGAN TULEY