| MadSci Network: Zoology |
Hi Mike,
How cool to have seen a bat flying around in the daytime! I was not able to find information on how a daytime excursion would affect a bat's usual nighttime foraging, but my guess is that the occasional brief foray to the outside during daylight hours isn't overly detrimental. We see the same kind of "anomaly" in humans, only in reverse – just as humans are a diurnal species, active during the day and sleeping at night, there are individuals who can or prefer to work nights and sleep away their days.
During the months when they aren't hibernating, bats have high metabolic rates, which they support by eating voraciously. According to this site, the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) can eat up to 50 kg (110 lb) of insects in a single summer. A single bat of this species was recorded eating 900 insects in an hour. The gray bat (Myotis grisescens), which has been listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, weighs from 7-16 grams and can eat up to 3000 insects in a single feeding.
Bats are fascinating creatures about which not a lot is known. They are needlessly feared, probably because they fly around at night and we humans tend to be afraid of things that go bump in the dark. Bats are also some of the major predators on insects and important pollinators of many tropical plants. For more information about the approximately 27 species of bats in Arizona, check out this site by a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service.
I hope this answers your question!
Allison J. Gong
Mad Scientist
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