Very few people are aware that there are bats in Alaska. Not only can you find them all the way into the Interior, but in the Southeast you can find five different species of bats flitting around. These cool creatures are hard to study here in Alaska, but they are fascinating!

Many Alaskans don't realize that we have a healthy bat population in our state.
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There are surprisingly quite a few bats that live here in Alaska. You can even find them all the way out in Kotzebue!
There are five bat species that call Alaska home.
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The long-eared bat, the long-legged myotis, the California bat, the silver-haired bat, and the most common bat in Alaska, the little brown bat. The first four species make their home primarily Southeastern Alaska.
The little brown bat can be found all over the great state of Alaska, even above the Arctic Circle.
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This species of bat is actually the most common bat in all of North America. You can find them all the way east to New York state.

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Scientists in Alaska surprisingly know very little about the bats that call this state home.
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They are unsure if they migrate, or hibernate in the winter. They do know that some bats spend their winter in Alaska, and they don't go into a deep hibernation.
Most likely these brown bats are hibernating over the winter here in Alaska.
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They usually only fly a couple hundred miles during migration, so that would put a bat who calls Fairbanks home still within the center of the state. How they survive the winter is unknown.
Most of the information about the ecology and biology of the bats in Alaska come solely from individual reports of citizens calling in when they see a bat.
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They do know that the mother little brown bats have just one baby bat at a time, a pup, and they give birth in June or July. These beautiful bats are also known to live up to 20 years old, which is usually unheard of for such a small mammal.
These lovely creatures are fascinating, and we need to learn more about their habits and lifestyle.
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In a state populated with so many big, wild creatures, bats usually go unnoticed. But these fascinating animals are on Alaskan scientists' radars, so hopefully we will be able to learn more about them soon.

 

Have you ever seen any bats in Alaska? What did you think? Where did you see them? Let us know in the comments below!

Learn more about another spring phenomenon, The Massive Bird Migration In Alaska That The Whole Family Will Enjoy.

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