Bat Facts

• Bats eat between 500-2000 insects per hour depending on the species.
• Bats can and do carry rabies, but there has been only ONE case of a Colorado person getting Rabies from a bat bite since 1931.
• More people die of dog attacks each year across the nation than rabies from bats.
• Bats are mammals and there are seventeen species known to be in Colorado.
• The most common bats in Colorado are Little Brown Bats and Big Brown Bats.
• Little Brown Bat's have been known to live for 31 years.
• During the life span of a single Little Brown Bat they will eat more the 45 million insects.
• Bats are very social and prefer to live in colonies.
• A pair of bats will have a baby in the late spring, sometimes twins.
• A baby bat will be flying in about 4-5 weeks.
• All bats have to learn to feed from Mom & Dad.
• Bats feed at night and are not discriminatory about what they eat. If it flies it’s dead!
• A bat’s heart rate during the night is around 1200 beats/minute while feeding.
• During the day, while at rest, they are in a state called “torpor”. During this time there heart rate is 1-2 beats per minute and they take 1-2 breaths per minute.
• The largest colony of bats in Colorado is in San Louis Valley at the Orient Mine consisting of 150,000 Brazilian free tail bats and they eat 1700lbs of insects/night.
• The largest colony known to be in North America is in Bracken Cave, TX (Located less than 20 miles from downtown San Antonio). The colony size is estimated to be 20 million Mexican Free-tail bats. They eat and estimated 200 tons of insects nightly.
• Our desert ecosystems would fail without bats. The bats pollinate the saguaro, organ pipe cactus and the agave.
• The next time you slice a banana for your cereal or enjoy a mango thank a bat. The wild stocks of these fruits are dependant upon bats for their pollination and seed dispersal. Dates, breadfruits, cashews and figs are also dependant on bats.