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Do bats migrate?



Bats will migrate if the food supply is depleted in their current environment. Certain bats may migrate to another location, but some bats do not migrate. There are some types of bats that may choose to hibernate instead when the supply of food is down.

Bats are found in three categories, which are:

Sedentary bats: they are big brown bats and they do not fly away during winter. They may only move from a summer home to go to a winter home. This migration will not be over 30 miles. They only move to find a suitable home.

Regional migrants are the little brown bats, and they only move in the region. They may migrate away from the summer roosts to go into mines or caves. They can move over 300 miles to their winter hibernacula.

The long distance migrants are, for example, the red bats which will migrate over long distances. The species is normally solitary and it lives in trees. In order to escape the cold, they may have to migrate over 600 miles to reach the winter destination.

The bats may be found in human homes in the winter months, and they may hibernate starting from late fall to the early spring. Before it was believed that the bats would go to the mines or caves to hibernate, but some may also hibernate in buildings or homes.

The bats will migrate or hibernate in large number. In some areas, it is common to find a group of bats that reach up to a million or even higher. The roosts used in the summer are most of the time different from those used in winter. This is because during the hibernation or torpor, the bats need to have a place with high humidity to avoid dehydration that is not too cold to avoid freezing.

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