A state-endangered evening bat is sighted in the glare of a headlamp along Prairie Creek south of Terre Haute (left). Bats, nearly impossible to identify in flight, can also be difficult to identify in close quarters. Wildlife technician Jay Hall of Bloomington inspects bat toe hairs to determine whether it is a little brown bat or a federally endangered Indiana bat (center). Non-game biologists istall a harp trap at the entrance to a Greene County cave (right). Bats attempting to fly through the trap reflexively grasp onto one of the closely spaced vertical wires and slide down into a collecting bag below.

The second most common bat in human structures in Indiana is the little brown bat (or little brown myotis).

This bat comprises about 15 percent of the bat colonies in buildings, but may form much larger colonies than the big brown bat.

There was a colony of little brown bats in a barn south of Brazil in Clay County Indiana from which we once saw 6,700 individuals emerge.

This was one of the largest colonies of the species ever known. Unfortunately the owners of the barn removed the structure when there were hundreds of bat pups present, causing the pups' deaths.

Little brown bats have one young per year. They feed on small flies, moths and beetles and they hibernate in caves, often in small clusters.

The second most abundant bat in Indiana is the red bat.

The species is very beautiful. Unlike most mammals, males and females differ in color.

Males are bright red and females are much duller red. Red bats are highly migratory but they are not colonial. They hang among the foliage. The red color may help to hide them among dead leaves, but this does not explain the sexual difference in coloration.

Red bats usually have three or four young per year.

We think that red bats, especially the young, may be more subject to predation than are other bats, perhaps from blue jays, squirrels and raccoons which forage in trees.

Red bats occur throughout the summer in Indiana, then migrate south. The northern edge of the winter ranges seems to be in southern Indiana, although there are probably very few red bats here in winter. Red bats eat many insects, mainly moths, true bugs and beetles.

Another bat that often makes the news in Indiana is the Indiana myotis (or Indiana bat).

It, along with the gray myotis (gray bat), are the only two species of bats in Indiana listed as federally endangered.

The Indiana bat was not recognized as a species separate from the little brown bat until 1928; it has shorter toe hairs and a keel on the calcar. The calcar is a small cartilage projecting into the tail membrane from the hind ankle of bats.

However, its behavior is very different and distinguishes it from other species.

The Indiana myotis forms relatively small maternity colonies, usually under the sloughing bark of trees. The roosts are usually in much sun, and the colonies seldom number more than 100 bats.

This species was originally listed as endangered because it forms huge masses in the relatively few caves where it occurs. Vandals have been known to kill great numbers of them at one time.