Wildlife

Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)

The Little Brown bat is the most widely distributed of Alaska’s bat. They are black and with a characteristic glossy sheen. Weighing only a fourth to a third of an ounce, they are about two inches long with a six-inch wingspan.

Little Brown bats use caves, hollow trees, or buildings as roosting places, leaving at dusk and returning just before dawn. They feed on flying insects, chasing them with an erratic flight pattern. ecause little brown bats live in a temperate zone, they must find some way of dealing with winter. Little brown bats migrate and hibernate. In summers, the males and females live apart, and the females raise their young. When fall comes, both sexes fly south to a hibernaculum, a place where they mate and then hibernate.

Little brown bats undergo a prolonged period of hibernation during the winter due to the lack of food. Biologists are not certain where the Alaskan little brown bats migrate to hibernate.

Look for bat boxes (sometimes occupied) at Tetlin National Wildlife Visitor Center.

These bat boxes were built for Tetlin by local girl scouts as a part of Tetlin’s Environmental Education program.

Last updated: March 10, 2011

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