Are We Home Yet?

		To help Bingo find a new home, you will need to know a little bit about his species (the kind of bat he is).  Remember that a good habitat provides everything that an animal needs to survive--in a way that makes it easy for the animal to get what it needs. What can you learn about brown bats from looking at the pictures on this page?  What are some external features of brown bats? How do they move around, eat, and rest?
Brown bats sleep all day.  They hang upside down by gripping some rough, hard surface with their toes.   Naturally, they look for a dark, quiet place to hang where they won't be disturbed.  At dusk, brown bats wake up and go hunting.  They fly fast through the air and perform lots of dips and turns.  Bats are not blind, but they do have very poor eyesight.  So they use sonar (sounds that bounce off objects) to find insects for food.
		One brown bat can thousands of insects in one night.  Bats usually choose to live near places where insects gather, such as bodies of water and artificial lighting.  Bats find and eat flying insects using their keen sense of hearing. They make high-pitched sounds and then listen for the echo of the sounds bouncing off a bug. If a brown bat seems to be dive-bombing you, it is probably trying to eat some of the flying insects you have attracted, such as gnats and mosquitos.
Instead of catching insects in their teeth, bats scoop them up with the ends of their wings, then push them into their mouths and grind them up with their teeth.  Bats drink water by flying low over the water's surface and taking a gulp while in mid-air. Brown bats take a lot of rest breaks while hunting.  In the winter, most hibernate in caves where they will be undisturbed.
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