Fifteen bat species inhabit Washington and comprise a group of animals that is not well understood. Many people think of bats as rodent-like animals that tend to get caught in one's hair, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. Pacific Northwest bats feed chiefly on insects and may play a significant role in controlling forest and crop pests. A single little brown myotis can eat up to 1,200 insects in one hour. Bats echolocate by emitting very high-pitched sounds from their mouths or noses and listening for reflected echoes.
Echolocation enables a bat to detect objects as small as a mosquito while flying in the dark.
Most of the bat research conducted by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists revolves around acquiring baseline information on bats and their whereabouts. Bat science is not as developed as the science around other animals. One significant reason for this is that bats are small, nocturnal, silent, flying animals, which makes it extremely difficult to study them. In non-arid areas, capturing bats can be extremely challenging, and even if you are fortunate to capture them, they cannot be banded because it is detrimental to them. Radio telemetry or light tagging also have inherent problems, since bats in non-arid regions roost underground in cliffs, caves and trees, and things that radio transmitters don't transmit through.