Watch with sound on
How Bats Sleep Through Winter
Read it instead
In summer flight, a bat's heart can beat 1,300 times a minute. Hibernating, it can slow to 10 beats a minute.
By the end of October, little brown bats head into caves and mines. Big brown bats often sleep the winter in house attics.
Their body temperature can drop to near freezing. They may go minutes without taking a breath. Some may sleep for more than six months. Now and then they wake up to drink water.
Red bats fly south for winter, like songbirds. Red bats have been found on ships 130 miles out at sea.
Sleep tight, bats.
Leave the winter bats be.
Big brown bats often spend the winter in house attics. MassWildlife says not to evict bats from a house in winter. Found one indoors? It will not attack you or tangle in your hair: open a window and let it find the way out, after making sure no person or pet touched it.
Data: MassWildlife (the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife) and the U.S. National Park Service.