The Shaded in Area is where the Gray Bat can be found in the United States.
The Gray Bat lives in Caves surrounded by forest. The Bats are also dependent on Major Bodies of water such as lakes or rivers to roost.
The Gray Bat's Niche.
The Gray Bat only feeds on Insects. They feed on at least 55 families of insects. The most important insects to their diet are Flies, wasps, beetles, and moths. They do not eat plants, or other animals. .
They do not have many predators, but are eaten by many birds.
Basically, they stay to themselves, and do not harm anything but insects.
The Gray Bat is very adapted to its environment. It has wings, which makes it able to fly around to different caves, and bodies of water. Its fur color is brownish gray, which makes it blend in well to the inside of the caves in which it lives in.
Gray Bats reach sexual maturity at the age of 2. Spermatogenesis is initiated in late summer and completed by early fall. Females also store sperm throughout hibernation. Females become pregnant soon after they leave hibernacula. Females stay pregnant from 60 to 70 days.
FACTS.
The Gray Bat lives in caves all year long.
They are not really gray!.
Fewer than 5% of available caves are suitable for Gray Bats to live in.
A Bats habitat is called a roost.
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Reasons for Endangerment.
The fall of the Gray Bat population is credited mainly to human disturbance. People whose actions disturb gray bat colonies stupidly believe that the bats move to other caves when they abandon a roost. However, Gray Bats are very loyal to a single cave, so they do not usually move on, and die out. .
People use the caves for exploration, commercialization, and vandalism. These factors hurt the gray bat population, and have caused its decline.
To protect the gray bat population, we must preserve their roosting habitat. If this occurs, the gray bats should move from endangered to threatened.
