I'm not sure entirely the details, but bat hibernation is different than bear hibernation. They don't store fat. The only mechanism they have to survive while h

I'm not sure entirely the details, but bat hibernation is different than bear hibernation. They don't store fat. The only mechanism they have to survive while hibernating is lowering body temperature and heart rate. It's actually not a true hibernation, they go into extended torpor, they still wake occasionally to drink and mate with sleeping bats. Bats also go into a daily torpor and another one in the latest part of the night. Many bats are actually crepuscular and not nocturnal, meaning they're active from dusk until early night and late night until dawn. The rest of the time bats spend in that lowered heart rate and body temperature torpor state. This is why white nose syndrome is so destructive. It causes bats to wake up early from hibernation and they end up starving because they can't get food and they can't hibernate properly. It was about 6 years ago I last worked with bats. That was the leading theory at the time. It may have changed, there's been an increase in bat research since then, but knowledge about bats is fairly scarce compared to other species. There just hasn't been a lot of work done in north america on then and there's a fair amount we really don't know. In Europe and especially England, there's been more research done but, the knowledge doesn't necessarily apply to species elsewhere. Bats are really cool they're distinct than most other small mammals. They're in an order all by themselves and microbats are a huge sub-order with thousands of species all over the world.