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RED BAT FACTS
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Description Red bats are medium sized bats with reddish to yellow-red fur with frosted appearance. This frosted look is because the hairs are white at the tips. Males are redder in color than females. Red bats are beneficial to people and the environment as they help to keep insect populations down.
Size Total length: 9 - 12cm. Body length: 4 - 5cm. They weigh 7 - 13 g.
Environment Red bats roost in dense foliage. They hibernate in hollow trees in the northern part of their range.
Food they capture insects in flight - moths, beetles, flies etc.
Breeding Two young are born after a gestation period of 80 - 90 days. (litter size can vary from 1 to 4). Newborn bats are hairless and weigh about 1.5 g. The young learn to fly at about five weeks old around the time they are weaned.
Range southern Canada through Central America and into Chile and Argentina
Notes Their conservation status is secure.
Classification
| Class: | Mammalia | | Order: | Chiroptera | | Family: | Vespertilionidae | | Genus: | Lasiurus | | Species: | borealis | | Common Name: | Red Bat |
Relatives in same Genus Hoary Bat (L. cinereus)
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