Introducing Bats to New Locations

Project participants frequently ask if bats can be introduced into new areas by “seeding” bat houses with bats from another place. The answer is almost certainly no. Bats have strong homing instincts and will return to their original area if moved. Nevertheless, there is a strong possibility that the mere presence of bat sounds emanating from a bat house may help local bats discover it.

This may explain how Stephen Frantz successfully attracted bats to two previously unoccupied bat houses after “seeding” them with local bats (BATS, Summer 1989). He captured little and big brown bats (Myotis lucifugus and Eptesicus fuscus) from adjacent roosts in buildings, then trapped them in bat houses on poles, using polypropylene netting to keep them inside. Frantz left the bats in overnight, then carefully removed the netting the following day. The bats returned to the houses, and, throughout the summer, occupied not only the “seeded” houses but also a third house nearby. Similar attempts to attract bats using recordings of bat sounds have failed, probably because most tape recorders cannot pick up a sufficient range of bat sounds.

We have also seen that local bats may return to a bat house once they have been introduced to it. Research Associate Amanda Lollar once saved a small evicted colony of Mexican free-tailed bats by moving them to a nearby bat house during the day. She trapped them inside with netting until they settled down, then carefully removed the netting later that afternoon. The bats emerged at dusk, and several returned the next day.

Please note that such experiments may not be legal in your area without a capture permit, and in any case should not be attempted by anyone not experienced in handling bats.