Ecology of the Big Brown Bat (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in Northeastern Kansas

Study from November, 1962, through May, 1964, principally at Leavenworth, Kansas, of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, revealed that in a mine 64% of the bats in winter and almost 100% in summer were males. Hibernation began in early October and ended in April. Males hibernated earlier than did females. Hibernation was in cold areas having crevices. Many bats hibernated in clusters of 2-21. Body temperatures of hibernators matched those of the microenvironments. Homing ability was demonstrated by one bat carried 45 miles away. Coleoptera were the principal food. Copulation in autumn and parturition in spring produced, typically, one young per female. In adults, females averaged larger than males. Molt was in spring. Endoparasites and ectoparasites were recorded. Corresponding data on the species from elsewhere in its geographic range are summarized. STUDY AREAS An idle limestone mine at the southeast edge of the city of Leavenworth, overlooking the Missouri River, houses the largest colony of the brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus fuscus (Beauvois), known in Kansas. The mine served as the primary study center from November, 1962, through May, 1964. Bats in a storm sewer in Lawrence, Kansas, also yielded some data. Temperature extremes of -22 and 114 F are on record at Leavenworth. The first killing frost occurs around 20 October, and the last around 10 April (Robb, 1941). The mine is separated from the Missouri River by a low area occupied for the most part by the city dump, but with a cornfield on the part of the area between the north end of the mine and the river. The crest of the hill over the northern section of the diggings is treeless owing to burning, but the original deciduous woods are still intact on the sides of the hill and over the southern extent of the mine. Processing operations outside the north end of the mine denuded that area; it is now sparsely overgrown with weeds. The western slope of the hill over the diggings was cut into and has subsequently undergone erosion. Cockrum (1952:70) described the mine as . an abandoned rock quarry which consists of approximately one-half mile of interconnected rooms and chambers tunnelled in the side of a bluff. Several large holes, large enough for the entrance of trucks, open to the outside along the east edge of this series of chambers and two or three similar openings are on the west edge. Ground water seeps 'Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Minnesota,