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The bats. How do you think long winter thaws can affect hibernating animals? Consider different options. (Example: Moscow Zoo) (10 points) Why do bats hibernate for the winter, while similar

Did you find a bat, or did a bat fly into your apartment, office, balcony? If it's warm outside, you can let it out, see. If the temperature is below freezing outside, it is impossible to release a bat - it will not be able to find a shelter for itself and will die. What can and should be done to help her? The most optimal way is to transfer the found animal to specialists. If this is not possible, then you can arrange the animal to winter.

Transfer to specialists

In some cities of Ukraine, it is possible to transfer the found animals to specialists or volunteers. Please contact them as soon as possible and arrange a transfer. In such cases, the animals will be provided with rehabilitation assistance and care, and in the spring they will be released into the wild. See how the rehabilitation overexposure works bats in winter, you can on the next page of this site.

  • Kyiv: tel. - unfortunately, temporarily not working
  • Zalishchyky (Ternopil region): tel. 096-883-7644
  • m. Zaporozhye: tel. 063-793-3855
  • Kamenetz-Podolsky: tel. 097-921-8346; mountains tel. (038-49) 5-12-70
  • Kamianske (Dneprodzerzhinsk Ave.): tel. 067-138-3842
  • Konotop: tel. 067-135-6187, 063-299-3084
  • Lugansk: tel. 067-738-2089, 066-210-5723
  • Lviv: tel. 098-782-0606
  • Odessa: tel. - unfortunately, temporarily not working
  • Uzhgorod: tel. 093-760-5880
  • Feodosia: tel. +7-978-882-9718
  • Kharkiv: tel. (038-57) 78-170-78 (local, SDMA), 096-591-1624; 066-305-9895; see also
  • Chernivtsi: tel. 096-964-1472

All phones are working. If the phone is not answered, please call back later. Please note that animal rehabilitation is a volunteer activity and all operators also have a core job.

What should be done before meeting with experts?

Remember! Never pick up a bat with bare hands. Do this with thick (eg leather) gloves.

1. Bring the animal indoors and put it in a box. If a bat flew into your apartment, carefully catch it according to the scheme described and illustrated.

2. Indoors, the box should be placed away from the battery, in a cool place. Make sure that the box is closed and that there are no holes in it through which the kazhan can get out. If the box lid is without a latch / latch, it should either be pressed or glued with tape. It often happens that the bat pry off the lid and get out. This should not be allowed. Also make sure that the box is out of reach of your pets (cat, dog).

If it is impossible to contact UCSC or for some reason the transfer is delayed for some time (which is undesirable, but acceptable), you should do the following:

1. Hang a piece of fabric on the edge of the box so that the kazhan can cling to it and settle in a position that is comfortable for him.

2. You should give the animal a drink. To do this, if the box is large enough, you can put a small flat container of water inside (for example, a plastic lid for a jar or a Petri dish). Or, taking the animal in your hands (required with gloves!) Offer him water from a syringe with the needle removed.

[You should not try to feed the animals with food "from the table." All of our species feed on insects, and they do not eat our usual foods (bread, eggs, meat, fruits, etc.).]

3. After that closed box should be placed in a cool place. If there is an unheated room, but with a positive temperature, you can put the box there.

Arrange to spend the winter

If your locality is not on the list and, accordingly, it is impossible to transfer the animal to specialists, then a “second chance” should be given to the bat. If the animal is healthy, then he will be able to live until spring.

Although the situations are different, general scheme actions can be like this.

1. Place the cauldron. Plant the bat in a box or box. Hang a piece of fabric on the edge of the box, for which the kazhan can catch and settle in a position that is comfortable for him. If the box is cardboard, then additional (ventilation) holes can be omitted. Close the box lid. If the cover is without a latch / latch, it should either be pressed or glued with a piece of adhesive tape. It often happens that the cauldron lifts the lid and climbs out. This should not be allowed.

2. You should give the animal a drink. To do this, if the box is large enough, you can put a small flat container of water inside (for example, a plastic lid for a jar or a Petri dish). Or, taking the animal in your hands (required with gloves!) Offer him water from a syringe with the needle removed.
[You should not try to feed the animals with food from the table. All of our species feed on insects, and they do not eat our usual foods (bread, eggs, meat, fruits, etc.).]

3. It should be as soon as possible (within a day) to find a place for further wintering of the kazhan. The required temperature for hibernation is +3...+5C. The temperature should not fluctuate. If the animal is kept warm, it will inevitably die. The longer it is at room temperature, the less likely it is to survive until spring.
[Such a temperature in urban areas is available in the refrigerator, in the compartment for greenery. Accordingly, if the situation allows, you can put the box with the kazhan in the refrigerator. However, it should be taken into account that the refrigerator should NOT have a drip defrosting system or a “no frost” function. In such refrigerators, which allow us not to engage in manual defrosting, there is insufficient humidity. In a private house, you can place a box with a cauldron in a cellar that has the appropriate temperature. A low stable temperature can also be in an unheated garage cellar. In this case, it should be ensured that the box with the animal is out of reach of rats and mice. In the basements of city houses, the conditions for hibernation are unsuitable. It's either warm or the temperature fluctuates a lot. In addition, in the cellars of city houses there are often animals that can eat kazhan (cats, dogs, rats). On the glazed balcony the temperature fluctuates quite strongly, so the cauldron can be kept on the balcony for a short time. Why do I say a cold place? All of our bats eat insects. In winter, there are no insects, so the kazhans experience the period of starvation in hibernation, for which they need certain temperature conditions.]

4. If you cannot quickly place the animal in a place with the required temperature, then in any case, the container with the cauldron must be placed in a cold place with a temperature above 0C.

5. It is highly desirable to place a thermometer next to the location of the container with a cauldron (refrigerator, cellar, etc.) in order to monitor the temperature. If the temperature rises, you should either lower it or move the cauldron to a cooler place. The temperature within even one room can vary significantly. For example, the temperature on the floor is always at least a couple of degrees lower than under the ceiling.

6. It is not worth checking how often the kazhan sleeps, and when doing this, it is very careful. Each awakening for a bat is an expenditure of energy, so necessary for it to survive.

7. If the animal survives until spring, it can be release with the onset of positive night temperatures, that is, already in the period of the appearance of insects (March-April, depending on the course of spring). Before the release of the animal should be given a drink. How to release bats, you can read.

Collecting photos

It is known that more than 25 species of bats live in Ukraine. AT last decade we began to know more about them, however, as before, bats are one of the insufficiently studied groups of animals in Ukraine, so each find is of interest. If you have the opportunity to take a picture of a bat that you met, we will be extremely grateful to you for sending photos!!!

With the onset of cold part bats migrates to southern regions flying hundreds of kilometers in search of outgoing heat.

However, many species - bats, earflaps, evenings - stay for the winter in the same places where they hunted in the summer. These bats hibernate in winter.

They are looking for the right shelter, clogged in cracks or securely attached with their paws to walls or ceilings, hanging upside down, and fall into a long winter hibernation for a total duration of 6-8 months.

Some animals can sleep absolutely motionless for up to 5.5 months in a row, without leaving a state of deep suspended animation.

REFERENCE: At the same time, their heart rate drops from 420 to 15-16 beats per minute, and the number of breaths decreases from 96 to 5-6 within a minute. Body temperature drops from 37-40 to almost zero degrees.

A long period of minimal life activity increases the lifespan of bats to 15-20 years, and some specimens live up to a record 30 years.

If during wintering the temperature in the shelter drops significantly, or sleeping animals are disturbed, they can come out of hibernation and move to a safer haven.

ATTENTION: Forced awakenings with flights take a lot of energy, and animals that again fall into suspended animation may not survive until spring.

Optimal wintering grounds

So, where do bats hibernate, do bats sleep in winter and where do they sleep?

To successfully overwinter, bats need reliable draft-free shelter with temperature from 7-8 degrees to zero (but not lower) and humidity from 80 to 100%.

Under the conditions of the middle lane, such a winter environment is created in the dungeons, caves and cellars, mines and adits, in the log cabins of deep wells, in attics, in the hollows of old trees.

Often the animals migrate to wintering shelters in colonies numbering up to several hundred individuals. Large communities of bats winter in empty abandoned pillboxes from the war times, in the forts of the Brest Fortress.

Finding a suitable place is not easy, so winged mammals perfectly remember not only the attic, cave or basement itself, but also the specific area on which they are located in it. From year to year, bats return to exactly the same place where they have already managed to safely winter.

A photo

Look at the photo: how bats hibernate


Bat in the city

Due to human intrusion into natural environment habitats of bats, the animals are mastering the area of ​​urban buildings and structures that was previously unusual for them.

Where do bats winter in the city? They settle into winter quarters in cracks and seams of multi-storey buildings, climb into attics, huddle under the lining of balconies, between window frames and in the crevices of air conditioners, are located in insulated basements and vegetable stores.

The close presence of humans poses a considerable danger to bats. If disturbed in winter, they freeze to find a new shelter or become easy prey for cats and dogs.

The bat found in the city in winter, first of all, provide water for drinking. Then you can send the animal to re-hibernate in a box or bag, finding a suitable place in the refrigerator.

Some hobbyists leave the animal awake at home, providing the plentiful supply it needs. feeding on live insects like mealworms.

In the spring, however, temporary captives must be released into the wild.

The settlement of bats for the winter in a certain building can be considered a kind of sign of "ecological quality", since these animals are sensitive to the naturalness of the habitat and do not settle in places, polluted harmful chemicals.

However, the neighborhood with large colonies of wintering animals in the city causes certain inconveniences.

In such cases, in autumn, when bats migrate to undesirable places of winter urban shelters, special ultrasonic repellers.

For farms and horticultural farms, where too massive wintering colonies are not formed, bats are welcome and useful neighbors in winter and summer.

Tireless nocturnal catchers of harmful insects - winged mammals - in most regions of the middle lane are rare and endangered species. They are sensitive to pollution. environment, hardly maintain their numbers and, at the same time, have a unique ability to survive the winter cold.

Bats shouldn't be disturbed on wintering grounds, since coming out of hibernation takes a lot of energy from them and the animals do not live up to the new spring hunting season.

Useful video

Watch in the video Interesting Facts about them:

Migration is an amazing and spectacular natural phenomenon - the mass movement of animals across our Earth. In general, everything has been said and shown about the flights of birds, because their flying abilities make it much easier to make long journeys. But even among mammals there are well-flying animals - bats.

British photographer Will Barrard Lucas took a rare photo while traveling in Zambia a natural phenomenon- migration of more than 8 million bats.

Bats are a large group of flying animals whose lifestyle is very different from that of birds, as they are mammals.

All bats distributed in temperate latitudes feed on insects, but in winter this type of food almost completely disappears.

Bats usually hibernate in some cool but warm shelters, such as caves, or migrate south, where insects are present even in winter.

For the first time, the assumption that bats migrate to the south arose when it was discovered that some of their species in Europe and America are very rare in wintering in caves, falling into a long seasonal hibernation, although there are a lot of them in summer.

Compared to small birds and some small mammals, bats live long lives, and each of them makes several flights in their lifetime.

British photographer Will Barrard Lucas captured an unusual picture in the skies over Kasanka National Park in Zambia, where more than 8 million bats were circling.

In nature, there are 700 species of bats, divided into 16 families.

Large species of bats can eat not only insects, but also birds, lizards, and frogs.

By the way, bats are extremely useful animals: an insectivorous bat can eat up to 200 mosquitoes in an hour of hunting.

Bats detect objects that block their path by emitting sounds that are inaudible to humans and catching their echo reflected from objects. Before the discovery of ultrasonic echolocation, bats were thought to have extrasensory perception.

Studies have shown that bats are able to detect a wire obstacle at a distance of 17 meters. The detection range depends on the wire diameter.

During flight, bats sing songs using complex combinations of syllables at high frequencies (due to their ability to echolocate). They create ultrasonic waves from 40 to 100 kHz.

According to biologist Michael Smotherman, no other mammal other than humans has the ability to communicate with such complex voice sequences.

Large fish-eating bats patrol the water surface at night, emitting very strong echolocation signals. But these signals do not penetrate into the water column. The mouse cannot detect a fish that is under water, but it will immediately find it if the fish sticks even a small part of its body out of the water.

How do you think long winter thaws can affect hibernating animals? Consider different variants. (Example: Moscow Zoo) (10 points)

Not often, but it happens that in December-January, with the arrival of some kind of anticyclone, a long thaw sets in with positive temperatures, and then the animals that have fallen into hibernation wake up. Unfortunately, for many of them, such an untimely awakening turns into death. Because “warmth” does not mean “satisfactory”. So deceptive warmth turns into starvation.

For example, during the waking period, a hedgehog can move far enough away from its winter mink in search of food. In this case, hedgehogs are in great danger of catching a cold - when sharp decline temperature or heavy snowfall, he will not always get to the mink on time.

And the bears, awakened from hibernation at inopportune times, they can pose a danger to other animals, and even to humans, since hunger and an unusual environment make these animals aggressive.

In the conditions of a zoo, where there is always plenty of food, there is no such danger, however, animals that wake up during a thaw can be lethargic and irritated.

Why do bats hibernate for the winter, while voles and ground mice, similar in results, are active all year round (Kungur caves)? Do not take large bats. (5 points)

Everyone knows that our bats prey on insects. But fruit bats feed on ripe juicy fruits, pollen, nectar, buds and fresh leaves of trees. True, Leschenault's flying dogs winter time switch to fishing. There is reason to believe that some other fruit bats will diversify their vegetarian diet with fish. All other bats of the Eastern Hemisphere, not only in temperate latitudes, but also tropical species they eat insects - some are small, and some are large. Only a few supplement the main diet with small running and crawling vertebrates, and New Zealand bats include plant foods in the menu.

Rodents are quite common in the Kungur cave. The nutrient medium for them is garbage along the excursion trails and vegetables stored in winter in one of the nearby grottoes. Rodents are found up to the grotto of Friendship of Peoples (800m from the entrance), and their traces on wet clay - in the unlit part of the cave (1000m from the entrance). Findings of three species of two families were reliably noted: gray rat (Rattus norvegicus), harvest mouse(Apodemus agrarius) and common vole(Microtus arvalis).

In the excursion and protected parts of the Kungur cave, in autumn and winter, bats (Myotis sp.) are found. In the summer, they take refuge in the tunnels and the first grottoes for the day. In 2002 Brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) was found in the cave.

Voles and ground mice are active all year round for the reason that they can find food for themselves in winter, as they feed on grass, occasionally seeds and insects, in winter - grass, seeds, bark and shoots left under the snow. Usually they eat food on the surface of the earth, and in these places bunches of stems remain. By the height to which the bark on the undergrowth is gnawed, you can find out in the spring what was the greatest thickness of snow in winter.

At the sight of bats, some fall into a stupor or horror, while others, on the contrary, treat them as cute creatures, with interest and curiosity. Bats do not just live in nature, nocturnal inhabitants destroy harmful insects. But in the middle of autumn, bats disappear somewhere, in winter you will not find them anywhere. Where bats live in winter and what they eat in severe frosts, we have to find out further.

What do bats and bears have in common?

Strange comparison, you might think. Although the obvious is on the surface - as soon as it gets cold outside, night flyers leave their homes and go to the southern regions. However, there are those that remain for the winter and hibernate. In this they are similar to bears.

In order to hibernate and survive, bats instinctively find reliable shelter. They are hammered into cracks or fixed with their paws to wall surfaces and under the ceiling, and hanging upside down.

They are so calm and comfortable. In a hanging sleepy state, they stay from 6 to 8 months.

Do bats wake up to search for food? No, many species of interesting animals can sleep soundly for 5.5 months. It is interesting that their body at this time seems to freeze, rest:

  • heart rate does not exceed 420 beats per minute, which in active state it is completely unusual for them;
  • the number of breaths is only 5-6 times in 1 minute;
  • body temperature drops to 0 degrees instead of the usual 37-40.

Hibernation allows bats to recover before future thaws and summer days. Due to the annual forced rest, the life expectancy of nocturnal inhabitants is 15-20 years. There are cases when a bat lived to a ripe old age - 30 years.

To sleep, it is important for the animal to be in a quiet and peaceful place. If they are disturbed, they migrate to another cave, shelter. If the flyers are forced to wake up and roam in winter period time, they can weaken and die before reaching the heat. But it is much more difficult for pregnant females, because sleep is not as important for them as regular meals. Females stay only where there are enough insects.

Where do bats prefer to winter?

The best place for bats to hibernate in the winter is to hide from drafts and extraneous noises, animals. The temperature should be at least 0 degrees, the required humidity - 80-100%. In regions located in middle lane, animals are looking for such secluded places:

  • dungeons;
  • caves;
  • cellars;
  • mines and adits;
  • log cabins of deep wells;
  • attics;
  • hollow of an old tree.

Bats rarely wander alone. More often they move in whole colonies. Having found such a colony in winter, you should not disturb it, remember that interruption of sleep can be fatal for animals. It is known that the largest communities of bats prefer to spend the winter in empty, abandoned pillboxes, preserved from the time of the war, the forts of the Brest Fortress.

So that each time they do not have to look for a new place, the animals perfectly remember the basement or cave and return here every winter for a good pastime.

How to Help a Bat Winter in the City

In the city, it is more difficult for bats to survive, but they still adapt to what they have. Winter settlements of animals arrange:

  • in cracks and seams of high-rise buildings;
  • are located in the attics;
  • under the lining of balconies;
  • climb into the slots of air conditioners;
  • overwinter in basements and vegetable storages insulated by pipelines.

Often mice are killed by cats and dogs that survive the winter in attics and basements. Due to the decrease in the number of flyers, they are listed in the Red Book.

If you find a bat awakened and weakened in winter, do not leave it to its fate, give it plenty of water. Water must be available to the animal at all times. It does not hurt to send a night dweller into re-hibernation, offering to stay in a box or bag that is placed in refrigeration equipment.

If there are no such conditions, the bat can go out in the apartment. What you need is to buy live insects in a zoological store. But even having made friends with the animal, you should not leave it with you forever. A mouse, endowed with the ability to fly, must live in freedom, this is its element. Release the flyer in the spring, and he will definitely find his relatives and join the family.