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The little brown bat is one of the most numerous bat species in many locations, including Oregon. With a body that rather resembles a mouse, and relatively long wings compared to its body size, it is also a voracious and talented hunter. For many people, few sights are more amazing than to see little brown bats feeding in the forest, especially near a lake or river, at dusk.

This little 'mouse with wings' seems to flutter without effort, in open areas, between tree limbs and other obstacles, never quite hitting them. They will skim low over the surface of water and abruptly fly high up into the air, pivot, and work back the way they came. Watching them zip around, missing things in their paths, including other bats; it becomes easy to forget that there is a definite reason for their movements. It is an important reason, too: feeding.

A little brown bat can eat over its own body weight in insects every night. It has such a high metabolism that this is necessary in order for the bat to survive. They would otherwise starve to death. This is a considerable accomplishment, too, considering the relative size of a flying insect such as a mosquito, and the size and weight of the bat, as small as it may be. The feeding behavior is one of the keys that make it possible for these little bats to eat so many insects in the short time between daylight and darkness.

Like many bats, the little brown bat hunts by using echolocation. It emits high-pitched squeaks and if these encounter an object, some of that sound is bounced back to them. From this information, they can determine the size of the object, whether it is moving or stationary, where it is located, and if it is moving, how fast it is moving.

With its tremendous aerial agility, this allows the bat to catch its prey and to avoid colliding with objects or even other moving bats.

Considering this, lets break down the previously observed feeding behavior. Detecting stationary objects, the bat misses tree branches and other stationary in its flight path. It then skims low across the surface of the water, where a great number of flying insects will be located. As it catches one, it eats it on the wing and is almost immediately ready for the next.

Detecting insects above, it angles up and through those insects, again eating as it goes. Then it turns back, drops altitude, and again skims across the surface, continuing to eat. Thus, it often completes a lazy figure eight pattern. This maneuver can be done repeatedly.

Though

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