After accounting for body size, bats have the longest lifespan of all mammals. Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) are one of the most common and widely distributed mammals in Canada; however, little is known of their longevity. We captured bats in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Saskatchewan in May 2015, as part of long-term bat research in the Park that began in 1991. On 31 May 2015, we captured 16 female Little Brown Bats in a maternity colony, including a bat that was originally captured and banded as an adult in 1993. This capture record indicates that the female bat was at least 23 y old and this record represents the oldest bat record in Saskatchewan. Little Brown Bats in eastern North America have declined dramatically due to white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease responsible for the quickest wildlife die-off in history. Pre-infection natural history data for Little Brown Bats are important as the disease spreads through central Canada.
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1 March 2017
A 23-Year-Old Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus) Record From Southwest Saskatchewan, Canada
Katie RN Florko,
Shelby J Bohn,
Matina C Kalcounis-Rueppell,
R Mark Brigham
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Northwestern Naturalist
Vol. 98 • No. 1
Spring 2017
Vol. 98 • No. 1
Spring 2017
Chiroptera
Cypress Hills
Little Brown Bat
longevity
maternity colony
Myotis lucifugus
southwest Saskatchewan