Bats of Canada
[4] The habitat range of the big brown bat is in the southern parts of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, and throughout Alberta.
[5] Males are solitary, whereas females "gather in maternity colonies in the spring and summer", consisting of up to 75 adults with their offspring.
[8] The solitary bat has a coat of grey fur with white tipped hairs, giving it a "frosted" or "hoary" appearance.
[7][10] Sometimes observed in British Columbia, the solitary red bat is generally found throughout the southern parts of Canada from Alberta to Nova Scotia.
[16] Its habitat is primarily forested areas in the southern parts of Canada, where it is common and roosts alone in logs or under bark,[7] but it is also found in grassland.
[15] Its preferred food is small, flying insects, especially moths, for which they forage after sunset in forest canopies or over streams and stagnant waters.
[20] It is a nocturnal predator of insects, which it catches and eats in flight "over lakes, rivers, meadows, and forest clearings",[21] or any other open area.
[23] The long-eared myotis is a vesper bat whose fur colour ranges from dark brown to pale yellow.
[29] It is a social creature, gathering in large clusters in its range in parts southern British Columbia,[30] and females will congregate in maternity groups in the spring.
[29] In the winter, it will hibernate in nearby caves,[30] and on cool or cold days the rest of the year individuals will enter torpor.
[29] The yellow-brown backed western small-footed bat has a range of southern British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
[31] The Yuma myotis, similar in appearance to the little brown bat, is found primarily in the coastal regions of southern British Columbia.
[32] It feeds on soft insects as it cruises low over small bodies of water, and prefers forest clearings.
[34] Its range in Canada is restricted to the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia, as its preferred habitat is open, arid and semi-arid terrain with sparse vegetation or cultivated fields or dry grasslands,[34] and roost in the crevices of cliffs.
There has also been one recorded sighting of an evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) on Pelee Island, Ontario, from 1911, which is thought to be a stray occurrence.
[41][42] The fungus causes bats to warm prematurely and wake early from hibernation, forcing them to deplete their stores of fat before spring.
[42][44][45] By 2014, about 99% of brown-nosed bats in New Brunswick had died as a result of the disease, and it is considered functionally extirpated in some parts of eastern Canada.
[43] In eastern Canada, all eight species have had reductions in populations as a result of destruction of bat roosts, deforestation, pesticide use, and cave exploration.
