Gray bat

Gray bats live in caves all year. In summer, females form large maternity colonies in warm caves, and males and young gather in others. In winter the whole population concentrates in a small number of deep, cold caves to hibernate, packed together on the ceilings.

Each night they fly along wooded corridors to rivers and reservoirs, sometimes many kilometres away, and hunt low over the water for emerging aquatic insects.

In Georgia they occur only in the limestone caves of the northwest.

Gray bats connect underground and river life. The insects they eat hatch from the water, and the nutrients they carry back to their caves in their droppings feed cave ecosystems of invertebrates and other animals that live nowhere else.

Their story is also one of recovery. After their caves were gated and protected, many colonies grew, showing that bats can come back when people leave them alone.

Mating — autumn, at hibernation caves; sperm is stored over winter
Birth — late May and June, a single pup
Flight — at about three to four weeks old
Independence — by midsummer
Lifespan — up to about 15 years or more has been recorded

• Stay out of caves with closure signs or gates; disturbing a hibernating or nursing colony can kill thousands of bats.
• Clean caving gear between caves to slow the spread of white-nose syndrome.
• Clear, healthy rivers and wooded stream banks provide their food and flight paths.
• Never handle a bat with bare hands; bats are rabies vector species.

• Cave gates are there to keep people out for no reason. They protect bat colonies that are among the last of their kind.
• A cave full of bats is dangerous. The danger is to the bats, from disturbance.
• Endangered species cannot recover. Gray bat numbers rose in many places once their caves were protected.

• Indiana bat
• Little brown bat
• Southeastern myotis