Art Credit: Sahina Irvin
Appearance
The Seminole bat is a medium-sized species of bat that occurs in Florida. It weighs between 9 and 14 grams (about the weight of two quarters) and has a wingspan of roughly 12 inches (Marks and Marks 2006). This species has mahogany-colored fur, sometimes with white tips that give the bat a slightly frosted appearance. The fur around the face is usually lighter, with more yellow in the color (Marks and Marks 2006). The Seminole bat has hair on its feet and tail, reflected in its Latin name: Lasiurus, which means “hairy tailed.” Females are slightly larger than males, though both sexes are identically colored (Wilkins 1987). Seminole bats are nearly identical to the very closely related red bat species (Lasiurus borealis), and can be distinguished mainly by their darker, more brown fur (Marks and Marks 2006).
Behavior
Like all Florida bats, the Seminole bat is insectivorous, meaning they eat mainly insects. Given their smaller size, Seminole bats prefer to eat smaller moths, beetles, flies, and other insects (Carter et al. 2004). They leave their roosts in the early evening, hunting over water sources and around clearings. Though they typically catch their prey in flight (a behavior known as “hawking”), they will occasionally land on vegetation to pick insects directly off leaves, a feeding behavior known as “gleaning” (Marks and Marks 2006). Like most bats, the species uses echolocation to find its prey, frequently emitting high-pitched calls and listening to the echo to home in on an insect’s exact location (Carter et al. 2004).
The mating habits of Seminole bats are largely unknown. They are known to mate in the fall, but mating bats have been recorded in the winter and spring as well. Because this species is active in Florida year-round, it is likely that mating also takes place throughout the year. One exception is during the summer maternity season, when bats become pregnant and give birth. Females typically give birth to three or four pups in Florida, usually between mid-May and mid-June. Weaning takes three to four weeks (Marks and Marks 2006).
Habitat
The Seminole bat prefers to roost alone, typically in pine or deciduous trees. They are especially known for roosting within clumps of Spanish moss on large oak trees (Wilkins 1987). They tend to roost on the western or southwestern edges of clearings, where the sun warms them up in the afternoon. These roost sites often go unnoticed due to the bats’ excellent camouflage. They are often only found when Spanish moss is being removed from trees (Marks and Marks 2006). In the winter months, they will insulate their roosts with leaf litter and moss, sometimes even roosting directly on the forest floor during especially cold nights (Hein et al. 2008). In other parts of their range, they appear to be migratory, moving to warmer climates in the winter. In Florida they are year-round residents (Perry 2018).
Threats
A major threat facing Seminole bats is increased urbanization. The forested areas this species uses for roosting habitat are being converted into human developments. Even when trees are left standing, Spanish moss is often cleared, destroying Seminole bat roosts and disturbing the bats themselves. Seminole bats avoid human structures, including bat houses, so there are few options to mitigate this habitat loss (Marks and Marks 2006).
Conservation and Management
These bats are monitored with the other bat species in Florida as part of the Long-term Bat Monitoring Program, which seeks to keep track of bat populations throughout the state. The program achieves this by placing ultrasonic detectors across the state that pick up and record calls of nearby bats.
It is illegal to remove bats from structures or to otherwise handle them directly in the state of Florida. If you have bats in your house or other structure, please see our Living With Bats page to learn how to properly evict them.
How You Can Help
We are always glad to have volunteer help with our bat conservation work, particularly with the Long-term Bat Monitoring Program in which volunteers help place and monitor our acoustic detectors. If you are interested in volunteering with this program or in helping in other ways, please visit our Bat Force website to learn more.
References
Carter, Timothy C.; Menzel, Michael A.; Chapman, Brian R.; Miller, Karl V. (2004). "Partitioning of Food Resources by Syntopic Eastern Red (Lasiurus borealis), Seminole (L. seminolus) and Evening (Nycticeius humeralis) Bats". The American Midland Naturalist. 151 (1): 186–191.
Hein, Cris D.; Castleberry, Steven B.; Miller, Karl V. (2008). "Male Seminole Bat Winter Roost-Site Selection in a Managed Forest". Journal of Wildlife Management. 72 (8): 1756–1764.
Marks, C. S. and G. E. Marks. Bats of Florida. 2006. University Press of Florida. Gainesville, Fl. 176 pp.
Perry, Roger W (2018). "Migration and recent range expansion of Seminole bats (Lasiurus seminolus) in the United States". Journal of Mammalogy. 99 (6): 1478-1485.
Wilkins, Kenneth (1987). "Lasiurus seminolus". Mammalian Species (280): 1–5.