Friday 10 October 2008

What are bats doing now?

As the weather begins to get colder in October insects become fewer. All British bats eat insects and therefore their prey/foodstuffs become less.

Bats can handle the colder weather because of the fur on their bodies and because they are mammals. But there will come a point when the energy expended in catching insects is greater than that available from the insects that are around. At this point the bats will decide it is better to stay in their roost and slow their body down, go into torpor.

In the cold of winter bats will hibernate, but before they get to this point they have to eat as much as possible in order to put weight on ready for hibernation. So slowing their body down in torpor is like a mini version of hibernating. They use very little energy/fat and can last long terms between feeds as the weather gets colder and the insects become fewer.

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