Life
The average lifespan of a Townsend's big-eared bat is 16 years.
During summer, males and females occupy separate roosting sites. Males live solitary lifestyles away from females. Females and their pups form maternal colonies which often number from around 12 to 200, although in the eastern United States, colonies of 1,000 or more have been formed.
During the winter, these bats hibernate, often when temperatures are around 32 to 53°F (around 0°C to 11.5°C.) Hibernation occurs in tightly packed clusters, which could possibly help stabilize body temperatures against the cold. Males often hibernate in warmer places than females and are more easily aroused and active in winter than females. The bats are often interrupted from their sleep because they tend to wake up frequently and move around in the cave or move from one cave entirely to another. Before hibernation, C. townsendii individuals increase their body mass to compensate for the food they do not eat during the winter.
Read more about this topic: Townsend's Big-eared Bat
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I feel the desire to be with you all the time. Oh, an occasional absence of a week or two is a good thing to give one the happiness of meeting again, but this living apart is in all ways bad. We have had our share of separate life during the four years of war. There is nothing in the small ambition of Congressional life, or in the gratified vanity which it sometimes affords, to compensate for separation from you. We must manage to live together hereafter. I can’t stand this, and will not.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)