How hard does a pallid bat bite?

Leith & Rochelle headed up to Canada last weekend to help with a Bat Blitz. This year, the objective was to inventory the bat diversity within a Nature Conservancy preserve in the Okanagan valley of British Columbia.

Over three nights, we documented 10 of the 14 species known to occur in the area. On the last night we participated, we finally caught a pallid bat – a rare and exciting catch. These bats are known to feed on large ground dwelling arthropods, including scorpions, and sometimes even small lizards! How much force is needed to access such hard prey items? Even though a few of the biologists felt force of this pallid’s bite, when we attempted to measure his bite force he was unwilling to perform.

While we had to leave the following morning, the blitz continued another night, and we hope they were able to document more of the diversity of this valuable preserve. We can only hope the next time we catch a pallid bat, the first thing he will chomp down on is our bite force meter!