little brown bat

noun

|Updated on: 29 Jul 2018

Definition of little brown bat

: a small widely distributed insectivorous North American bat (Myotis lucifugus) with brown fur

Recent Examples of little brown bat from the Web

About 200 female little brown bats have made their nesting homes in a shelter at Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda.

— sheryl devore, Lake County News-Sun, "Five cool bat facts," 23 Apr. 2018
Back at Fort Drum, for instance, the little brown bat maternal colony seemed headed for extinction.

— rachel kaufman, Smithsonian, "Three Ways Bats Could Bounce Back From Devastating White Nose Syndrome," 18 June 2018
One of those colonies today includes nearly 200 little brown bat mothers and babies.

— rachel kaufman, Smithsonian, "Three Ways Bats Could Bounce Back From Devastating White Nose Syndrome," 18 June 2018
To report the location of a little brown bat colony of ten or more, e-mail jennifer.longsdorf@state.ma.us. Margeaux Sippell can be reached at margeaux.sippell@globe.com.

— margeaux sippell, BostonGlobe.com, "Little brown bats are dying; why we should care," 16 Apr. 2018
The little brown bat is the only one that remains in winter, hibernating upside down underneath the bark of shagbark hickory and other trees, as well as sometimes in people’s attics, Goyette said.

— sheryl devore, Lake County News-Sun, "Lake County bat monitoring program hopes to prevent fungus killing critical mammal," 23 Apr. 2018
Once among the most common bat species in the United States, the little brown bat has been reduced to just 1 percent of its former population.

— margeaux sippell, BostonGlobe.com, "Little brown bats are dying; why we should care," 16 Apr. 2018
Before the disease entered Pennsylvania in the winter of 2008-2009, a species called the little brown bat numbered in the millions.

— joe barrett, WSJ, "Hunt to Save Bats From White-Nose Syndrome Gets Funding," 24 Oct. 2017
In New York City, where nine species of bats are known to migrate during the summer, a single little brown bat is capable of devouring up to 100 percent of its body weight in insects, a diet that includes mosquitoes.

— laura bliss, New York Times, "The Remarkable Patience of the Staten Island Bat Watchers," 21 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'little brown bat.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.