Red Bat Trivia

There have been more red bat sightings in Central Park during the last few weeks. One place to look for them, at dusk, is the west side of the Pinetum.

Here are some random red bat facts you might want to know:

According to the BNA, Blue Jays are probably the most important predators of red bats.

Red Bats are migratory, and are even thought to migrate together with large flocks of birds. Sometime during the night of October 18-19, 1955, two male red bats were killed when they struck the 1472 foot high Empire State Building , presumably during their migration flight southward. They were found on one of the building's roof set-backs and picked up by maintenance men, who also gathered 156 birds of 18 species that had struck the building.

The scientific name, Lasiurus borealis, means Northern shaggy-tails. That's because red bats have furry tails, while most other bats do not. They also are furry all over, even on the undersurface of their wings [as Kellye Rosenheim pointed out in a recent posting] This allows them to withstand cold temperatures.

Red bats mate in flight in August or September, but the eggs are not fertilized until the following spring.

Female Red Bats have 4 teats, twice as many as most bat species.