A bat hanging upside down on a wall in Castlegar, B.C. Saturday, August 3, 2013.

A bat hanging upside down on a wall in Castlegar, B.C. Saturday, August 3, 2013.

Stucco Snooze

Commonly perceived as frightening, little brown bats do the natural world a lot of good.

A bat identified by Juliet Craig, a biologist at Silverwing Ecological Consulting and project biologist at Kootenay Community Bat Project, as a little brown bat (sometimes called little brown myotis) was seen grabbing a nap during daylight hours on Saturday, August 3.

This species of the genus Myotis (mouse-eared bats) is one of the most common bats of North America.

Valuable to the ecosystem, these bats are insectivores, helping to keep a whole range of insect populations under control.

Their diet makes this species beneficial to agriculture as it eats many species of agricultural pests.

 

Castlegar News