Tricolored bat

Tricolored bats are among the smallest bats in the East and among the first to fly each evening, hunting in a slow, erratic flight over water, along forest edges and around trees.

In summer they roost in foliage, often in clumps of dead leaves or, in the South, in Spanish moss. In winter they hibernate, usually alone, hanging on the walls of caves, mines and — across the southern coastal plain, including Georgia — concrete road culverts. They hibernate for long periods without waking, and their fur is often covered in droplets of condensation.

Tricolored bats take enormous numbers of small insects for their size, including midges and other flies that rise from water in the evening.

They are also one of the clearest measures of what white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease of hibernating bats, has done to North America. Hibernation counts of this species have collapsed across much of its range since the disease arrived, and the bats that remain matter far more than their size suggests.

Mating — late summer and autumn, at cave entrances; sperm is stored over winter
Gestation — about 44 days after fertilisation in spring
Birth — June, usually two pups
Flight — at about four weeks old
Independence — by late summer
Lifespan — up to about 15 years has been recorded; most live far less

• Waking a hibernating bat costs it fat it cannot replace in winter; stay out of caves, mines and culverts where bats are hibernating.
• Follow any closure signs on caves; they protect hibernating bats from disturbance and the spread of disease.
• Cleaning boots and gear between caves helps slow the spread of white-nose syndrome.
• Never handle a bat with bare hands; bats are rabies vector species.

• A bat hanging still in a culvert in winter is dead. It is hibernating, and disturbing it can kill it.
• Small bats are baby bats. Adult tricolored bats weigh about as much as two or three coins.
• White-nose syndrome only affects cave explorers' bats. It has spread across much of North America and devastated several common species, including this one.

• Little brown bat
• Eastern small-footed bat
• Southeastern myotis
• Silver-haired bat