Other Mammals - Sounds Wild
Long-eared Bat

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Long-eared Bat

On a cool spring night, bat researchers on Douglas Island near Juneau are catching bats. A bat detector sounds off when it hears the high pitch echolocation calls of nearby bats. Different bats make different calls, and a graphic representation of the call, an acoustic signature, can help identify the species of bat. Southeast Alaska is home to little brown bats, silver- haired bats, and a few others, including Keen’s myotis. But biologists are learning that Keen’s myotis is likely the same species known elsewhere as the western long-eared bat.

In the 1890s a british Anglican missionary named John Henry Keen, based in northern British Columbia, took a serious interest in natural history. He wrote about insects and animals of the coastal rainforest, and sent specimens back to the British Museum. He described a “brown mouse-eared bat,” found only in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, which came to be called Keen's myotis. Even at the time it was acknowledged to be very similar to the western long-eared bat, a species found across western north America. Now, two decades into the 21^st century, with tools to examine genetics and the signature calls that bats make, biologist are learning that Keen’s myotis is indistinguishable from the Western Long-eared bat.