What do bats eat?
Bats are the most significant predators of night-flying insects. There are at least 40 different kinds of bats in the U.S. that eat nothing but insects. A single little brown bat, which has a body no bigger than an adult human’s thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams (the weight of about a grape or two) of insects each night. Although this may not sound like much, it adds up—the loss of the one million bats in the Northeast has probably resulted in between 660 and 1320 metric tons of insects no longer being eaten each year by bats.
Bats locate each insect by echolocation, then they trap it with their wing or tail membranes and reach down to take the insect into their mouth. This action, as well as the chase, results in the erratic flight most people are familiar with when they observe bats feeding in the late evening or around lights at night.
Other species of bats eat many different things, including fruit, nectar, and pollen. Bats are important pollinators as they fly from plant to plant in search of food. In the southwestern deserts of North America, bats are the key pollinators of saguaro and organ pipe cactus. Tequila is made from the agave plant, which is pollinated by bats.
Learn more at our North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) website.
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Southeastern Bat with P. destructans Fungus
This southeastern bat (Myotis austroriparius) from Alabama shows signs of infection from the Pseudogymnoascus destructans fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats. The USGS National Wildlife Health Center later confirmed white-nose syndrome in this animal, marking the first time that WNS was found in a southeastern bat. As of June 2017, the species joins eight other
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Hibernating little brown bat
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Little brown bat with white-nose syndrome
Little brown bat with white-nose syndrome
Dissected bat guano pellet showing antennae, eyes, and body parts
Dissected guano pellet showing antennae, eyes, and body fragments of midges.
Mosquito, carrier of the Encephalitis virus
Examples of Insect fragments from bat guano
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Allen's big-eared bat (Idionycteris phyllotis), an insectivore.
Allen's big-eared bat (Idionycteris phyllotis), an insectivore known from the southwestern United States.
Bat Colony
While mother bats are out foraging, the young bats huddle together in groups that biologists call a cuddle.
Bat Thermal Video
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