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Vampire bats, probably due to their diet of blood, are the only vertebrates that do not have the enzyme maltase, which breaks down malt sugar, in their intestinal tract. Nectivorous and frugivorous bats have more maltase and sucrase enzymes than insectivorous, to cope with the higher sugar contents of their diet. [86]
Townsend's big-eared bats exiting a maternity colony in a mine. A maternity colony refers to a temporary association of reproductive female bats for giving birth to, nursing, and weaning their pups. The colonies are initiated by pregnant bats. After giving birth, the colony consists of the lactating females and their offspring.
Little brown bats infrequently test positive for the rabies virus; of the 586 individuals submitted for testing across the United States in 2015, the most recent data available as of 2018, 16 (2.7%) tested positive for the virus. [76] Little brown bats are a species that will use bat houses for their roosts. [77]
“Bats use their uropatagia (tail membranes) in many unique ways such as fishing nets, to catch pups during birth and so forth and thus they are useful in many ways but perhaps an impediment ...
A maternity colony may range in size from 12 bats to 200, although in the eastern United States, colonies of 1,000 or more have been formed. [2] During the winter, these bats hibernate, often when temperatures are around 32 to 53 °F (around 0 °C to 11.5 °C.) Townsend's roost singly during hibernation, forming small clusters only rarely.
A 2011 study of a population in Colorado found that their average life expectancy was a little over 6.5 years; [43] according to a 2008 report, some banded big brown bats have lived up to 20 years, although some experts have hypothesized that the bats might be "capable of living much longer." [44] In general, males live longer than females. [29]
Mexican free-tailed bats are typically 9 cm (3.5 in) in length and weigh around 7–12 g (0.25–0.42 oz) with females tending to be slightly heavier than males by 1–2 grams for increased fat storage to use during gestation and nursing. [8]
The habitats of the spotted bat are undisturbed roosts on cliffs along the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and open and dense deciduous and coniferous forests, hay fields, deserts, marshes, riparian areas, and dry shrub-steppe grasslands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada.