A 23-year-old little brown bat record from southwest Saskatchewan, Canada

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Matina C. Kalcounis-Rüppell, Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: After accounting for body size, bats have the longest lifespan of all mammals. Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) are one of the most common and widely distributed mammals in Canada; however, little is known of their longevity. We captured bats in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Saskatchewan in May 2015, as part of long-term bat research in the Park that began in 1991. On 31 May 2015, we captured 16 female Little Brown Bats in a maternity colony, including a bat that was originally captured and banded as an adult in 1993. This capture record indicates that the female bat was at least 23 y old and this record represents the oldest bat record in Saskatchewan. Little Brown Bats in eastern North America have declined dramatically due to white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease responsible for the quickest wildlife die-off in history. Pre-infection natural history data for Little Brown Bats are important as the disease spreads through central Canada.

Additional Information

Publication
Northwestern Naturalist. 98:57–59
Language: English
Date: 2017
Keywords
Chiroptera, Cypress Hills, Little Brown Bat, Longevity, Maternity colony, Myotis lucifugus, southwest Saskatchewan

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