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Index of Subjects This time of the year, northern bat species engage in two behaviours, both based out of their normal winter hibernation sites. The first, foraging, occurs as long as evening and night temperatures stay above freezing. Individuals leave their hibernacula and feed in the normal manner as long as there is food available. As fall progresses, these feeding binges may become restricted to early evening hours, then will cease altogether. So, with the fall that we have this year, we should expect to see foraging activity, certainly well into November. The second behaviour is mating. Once in the hibernacula, males hwo have just roused from a torporous will, (apparently) randomly, mount nearby individuals (usually females), and mate with them. These females usually are still in a torpid state at the time. The females then store the sperm in the uterine lining until spring comes, at which time both the sperm and egg(s) are released and fertilization takes place. So, feeding this time of year is still a go. Andrew A Hebda Curator of Zoology >>> "john belbin" <jbelbin@ns.sympatico.ca> 10/20/2006 7:28 PM >>> Two little brown bats have spent the evening flitting about and foraging over my lawn, several times coming within a few centimetres of the picture window in my living room. This is a real surprise as they are almost the only bats we have seen here this summer - the bat box overlooking the stream has been empty and ignored all year for the first time since I put it up. These two were highly active and I watched them catching insects for about 25 minutes, until it got too dark to see. For all I know they could still be out there. Some of the on-line material about Little Brown Bats tells me that they usually don't eat from September to may - well someone should tell these two! They were doing very well. Maybe we are having an "Indian Summer" and they decided to take advantage of it. Certainly there have been a lot of insects about for the last couple of days. Anyway it is good to see them again - even my neighbours had been asking where the bats had gone this year. John Belbin - Kingston
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