Bats - Roosting

Most bats rest during the day and disperse around dusk to feed. Bats typically spend more than half of their lives in their roost environment, which may be in a cave, mine, crevice in rocks, cavity in a tree, in dense foliage (sometimes rolled up into a tent), or in a human structure. Many bats roost communally, often for brooding of young or for hibernation; such colonies range in size from a few individuals to several millions in a large cave. Females of some colonial bat species will share food and nursing of the young during the breeding season. For a hibernating bat in temperate areas, a communal living Looking up at fruit bats in Tasavo National Park, Kenya. Photograph by Don Mason. Stock Market. Reproduced by permission. arrangement offers a relatively stable microhabitat in which their body temperature may drop to within a few degrees of the ambient temperature, thus permitting the conservation of critical reserves of body fat.