Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. My thoughts are with the people of Colorado right now, so I thought I’d write about a bat from there. I found an adorable species called the Long-legged Myotis.

As their name suggests, Long-legged Myotis bats have longer legs than other Myotis species. This is because they have a slightly longer tibia, which is the long bone in your leg. Like most other Myotis species, such as the Little Brown Bat, these bats have light brown to chocolate brown fur covering most of their body. They also have hair growing on the underside of their wings, all the way up to their elbows and down to their knees! Long-legged myotis have rounded ears that, when pointed forwards, can reach all the way to their nose. One fun fact about this unique species is that the female bats are slightly larger than the males of the species.

Long-legged Myotis bats live in Alaska and into the Northwestern US, down into Mexico. Their range extends eastward into the Dakotas, down to Nebraska, and into western Texas. They like to roost in the forest mainly, although some colonies have been spotted in more desert-like terrain. Colonies in mountainous areas like to roost mid-slope where there is more food. They eat insects, such as moths, flies, lacewings, and small beetles.

If you would like to read more about these bats, you can do so here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-legged_myotis

I hope you all have a good week!