Wild Animals of North America / Intimate Studies of Big and Little Creatures of the Mammal Kingdom

by Edward William Nelson

THE RED BAT (Nycteris borealis)

(For illustration, [see page 566])

Bats reach their greatest development in the tropics, where a marvelous variety of these curious mammals exist. To the northward the number of species gradually decreases, until eventually, in northern Canada and Alaska, a single species represents the group. The United States, occupying the middle latitudes, has a considerable number of different kinds. Some of these remain throughout the year, hibernating in caves during the period of cold, when insects are not to be had; others wing their way southward like birds on the approach of winter and return in spring.

All bats are nocturnal, although individuals of some species occasionally fly about for a time by day and many come out just before or soon after sunset. In this country practically all species are insectivorous, but in Mexico and the West Indies many are fruit-eaters and a few true vampires or blood-suckers.

As a rule, bats are clothed in dull colors, but richly tinted coats give a few a more attractive appearance. Of these none has a more striking adornment than that presented by the soft covering of glossy orange-red fur of the red bat. Its large size, about four inches in total length, with a spread of wings amounting to twelve inches, combined with its color, suffices to distinguish it at once from any other northern species.

The range of the red bat extends from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from Ontario and Alberta in southern Canada south throughout most of the United States to the Gulf coast and southern California; also beyond our limits to Lower California and Costa Rica. The genus to which this bat belongs ranges more widely in other parts of North America; also to South America and across the eastern Pacific to the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands.

The red bat rarely or never seeks shelter in gloomy caves and crevices, but hangs to the small twigs or leaf stems on trees and bushes in the full light of the sun. One observer in Texas on July 4 found four of them hanging in a cluster from a twig on a peach tree, with the sun shining full on them, although the temperature in the shade was 82 degrees Fahrenheit. I have found them in northern Illinois in the glaring sunlight of May, hanging from leaves in the tops of oak trees. This unusual tolerance of light in a member of the bat tribe is further shown by its habit of beginning to hunt through the air for insects earlier in the afternoon than other species in its range.

BIG DOG TROTTING

This track of a big dog trotting in about two and a half inches of snow is singular in the perfect register it shows. The hind foot drops each time into the track of the front foot. This correct style is more usual with wild than with tame animals. Compare with track of dog galloping, page 596.

A COMMON DOG

The hind feet are, as usual, narrower, though nearly as long as the front. The dog is a loose walker. Sometimes the hind foot is on the track of the front, sometimes ahead, and often behind. The claws show. The dragging of the front feet is another slovenly habit, an evidence of overdomestication.

Long, narrow wings and swift, powerful flight characterize the red bats in the air. They have marvelous control in darting and turning here and there, and no birds, except possibly the chimney swifts, can equal them in their extraordinary gyrations.

Red bats are known to migrate from the northern part of their range in September or October and to return in May. They have been seen going south at Cape Cod the last of August and in September; and late in October Dr. E. A. Mearns has recorded great flights of them down the Hudson Valley, lasting throughout the day. That they share the vicissitudes of migrating birds is indicated by observation on the New Jersey coast of stray individuals coming in from the sea exhausted early on September mornings.

They are among the most solitary of their kind, usually being found hanging singly on a tree or bush, sometimes within a few feet of the ground. On occasion they gather in clusters as mentioned above, and in one instance in Maryland more than a dozen were hanging in a compact ball, which suddenly exploded into its winged parts when disturbed.

One of the most unusual characteristics of the red bat is found in the number of young it bears. Usually other species, except the hoary bat, have one or two young, but at varying dates between May and July each year the red bat produces from two to four, the average being three or four. The young when very small are carried clinging to the body of the mother in her flights. She continues to take them from place to place in this manner until their combined weight exceeds her own. The strength of the maternal feeling in this species is well illustrated by an instance in Philadelphia where a boy caught a half-grown red bat in a city square and carried it home. In the evening, three hours later, he crossed the same square, carrying the young bat in his hand, when the old one came circling about him and finally in her deep anxiety alighted on his breast. Both were brought in, the young one clinging to its mother’s teat. The devoted mother received injuries when she was captured, from which she died two days later.

In the contact between mankind and bats, man, the invariable aggressor, finds the bats baring their teeth, biting viciously, squeaking, and behaving altogether like little fiends. A gentler side is sometimes exhibited, however, and one observer who caught a partly grown red bat found that it became tame, showed intelligence, and developed a friendly feeling for its captor.