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silver-haired bat

silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans)
Photo © Michael Durham

Features and Behaviors

FEATURES
The silver-haired bat has black hair with silver or white at the tip. There is some hair on the tail. The short ears each have a blunt tragus.

BEHAVIORS
The silver-haired bat may be found statewide in Illinois. In the summer, it lives in wooded areas close to water, resting under tree bark or in holes in trees. It hibernates in mines in southern Illinois in the winter. The silver-haired bat eats insects. It flies low and slow and feeds from near the ground to treetop level. The silver-haired bat hangs by itself instead of in colonies during hibernation. In spring the females leave the wintering site before the other bats of this species. The gestation period is 50 to 60 days. Two young are born per female in late June or early July. The young bats can fly by late July.

Illinois Range

Taxonomy

​Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Vespertilionidae

Illinois Status: common, native