Bats

Nine species of bats live in DuPage County: the little brown, big brown, eastern red, hoary, silver-haired, evening, tricolored and northern long-eared. (The Indiana bat once lived in DuPage, but ecologists have not recorded one in the county for several decades.)

All of the county's bats are insectivores. They have the reputation of eating thousands of mosquitoes in one night, but mosquitoes make up only a small part of their diet. Bats are more likely to feast on moths, June bugs and other larger insects, which are much easier to catch.

Bats are the only mammals in the world that can fly. They navigate in part by emitting high-frequency sounds and then using their funnel-shaped ears to listen for the echoes those sounds make as they bounce off nearby objects. By using this “echolocation,” they can pinpoint tiny insects in complete darkness. This ability has led to the myth that bats are blind, but they actually have excellent eyesight.