Do more bats live in urban areas, or wild areas?

If you live in an area where bats are known to roam, then you are aware that if you have seen one there are probably hundreds, if not thousands still lurking out there. These animals are colonizers, meaning they travel as a large group and live as an equally large group. Most of the times these colonies number in the hundreds; but there are many cases where a colony was in the hundreds of thousands. What that tells you, again, is that if you have seen one, there are probably many more around.



What many may wonder is where most bats are found. Do they live in more rural areas or can they be found more around the urban or suburban areas. This is a good question, but is a little misleading to ask to be honest. Let’s explain. First of all consider that the colony sizes have a lot to do with where bats live. They need a place where they can set up shop and be undisturbed for the most parts. Caves are the most ideal location, which means a rural setting. The most common places these are found are in the desert or in the mountain areas, areas that are primarily rural in location.

There are some colonies that will make their home in abandoned buildings, especially taller ones like one would find in a large city. Bats are looking for a place where they can hang to reside. They don’t really care about the floor, so if the ceiling has a lot of open piping to hang from it is ideal.

While most bats live in rural areas that does not mean that this is where they are found when they are awake. A bat can travel up to 50 miles per night, meaning they can go a long distance, and will go a long distance to find food. This means that they will frequently travel into densely populated areas if they believe they will find food there. So this means that urban areas can have bats, and lots of them if there is an adequate food source.

Still the majority of bats are found in more rural settings especially where there is a sparse population of people. They can still be found in some manmade structures like a barn. Usually much smaller colonies are found in places like this, primarily because of limited room and human intervention trying to force them out.

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