Little Brown Bat

The little brown bat is a small, insect-eating bat native to North America, once one of the most common bat species across much of Canada and the United States, roosting in large colonies in caves, tree hollows and human structures such as attics and barns. It hunts at night using echolocation to detect and catch flying insects, particularly midges, mosquitoes and moths, and a single bat can consume a very large number of insects in one night, making the species an important natural check on insect populations. Little brown bats hibernate through the winter in caves and mines, and since the mid-2000s, populations across much of North America have been devastated by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that disrupts hibernation, causing the species to be reclassified as endangered in a dramatic reversal from its former abundance.