WildWatch Weekly Born to Fly: Our Bat Cam Captures a Live Birth! Live Cams Latest Posts Store Facebook YouTube 26 New Born Big Brown Bat Pups on June 9th at the WLT Schwarz Barn A Breakthrough Moment: First-Ever Live Birth of a Wild Bat Captured on Camera After months of careful planning and preparation, PixCams and the Westmoreland Land Trust have achieved a groundbreaking milestone in wildlife observation—capturing the live birth of a big brown bat on camera. This extraordinary moment...
26 New Born Big Brown Bat Pups on June 9th at the WLT Schwarz Barn
A Breakthrough Moment: First-Ever Live Birth of a Wild Bat Captured on Camera
After months of careful planning and preparation, PixCams and the Westmoreland Land Trust have achieved a groundbreaking milestone in wildlife observation—capturing the live birth of a big brown bat on camera. This extraordinary moment unfolded inside the Schwarz barn, where a large maternity colony of big brown bats has made its summer home. Thanks to a unique and carefully designed live streaming setup, viewers were able to witness a rarely seen event in the wild: a mother bat giving birth in real time.
Recorded Video of the Big Brown Bat Birth on June 7, 2025
This live streaming project was no small feat. Months in the making, it required strategic planning, specialized equipment, and precise camera placement inside the barn’s rafters. The installation features two high-resolution pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras mounted on opposite sides of the barn’s ridge beam. These cameras provide a dynamic and detailed view of both roosting areas, allowing us to monitor where the bats congregate and follow their activity throughout the structure. Designed for remote control, these PTZ cameras enable us to zoom in closely and track movement as the colony shifts positions—an essential feature for capturing fleeting and intimate moments like the birth we recorded.
Two pan-tilt-zoom cameras inside he Schwarz barn pointed toward the roof ridge board where bat are roosting
We believe this is the first time a wild bat birth has ever been captured on a live streaming camera, making this not only a success for PixCams but a significant contribution to the documentation of wildlife behavior. It’s an exciting reminder of how technology, when combined with patience and conservation-minded partnerships, can open an entirely new window into the natural world.
Twin Big Brown Bat Birth
Born Upside Down: The Amazing Birth of the Big Brown Bat
Bats, unlike most mammals people are familiar with, give birth while hanging upside down—an incredible feat of evolution and adaptation. In North America, most bat species, including the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. Births usually occur in late spring or early summer, after a female has spent the winter hibernating with stored sperm from a fall mating. Once spring arrives and the weather warms, females form maternity colonies and the reproductive cycle resumes, leading to the birth of one or two pups.
Big brown bats typically give birth to one pup at a time, although twins are not uncommon. The birthing process can take several minutes, and the mother remains hanging from her roost during the entire event. With great care, she uses her wings to guide the pup as it emerges, often catching it with her wing or tail membrane to prevent it from falling. The pup is born hairless, blind, and helpless—yet instinctively clings to its mother using its tiny feet and mouth.
After birth, the mother nurses her pup for several weeks. During this time, the young bat rapidly gains strength and grows its fur. By about three to four weeks of age, the pup is usually ready to begin short flights and starts learning how to hunt insects. Within six to eight weeks, most juvenile big brown bats are fully independent. The communal structure of a maternity colony provides safety in numbers and warmth, and many of the bats will roost together year after year, returning to familiar sites like the Schwarz barn. Witnessing the birth of one of these remarkable creatures live on camera provides an unforgettable glimpse into the secretive and often misunderstood world of bats.
A Surprise in the Rafters: 12 Bat Pups Born Live on Camera
One of the most unexpected and incredible moments we witnessed this past week came on the afternoon of June 7th, when our live streaming camera captured the birth of a big brown bat pup—live on camera! What made the moment even more remarkable was that it wasn’t just one birth. As the afternoon unfolded 12 new pups were born within the colony, all in the span of just a few hours. It was a rare and intimate look into a process that typically happens out of sight, hidden away in dark rafters or tree cavities.
As dusk approached and the adult females prepared to leave the barn to feed, we were able to see the tiny, pink newborn pups left behind in clusters on the roosting beam. This is a normal behavior—bat mothers will often leave their pups behind in the safety of the roost while they forage for insects, returning throughout the night to nurse. Seeing this behavior unfold live on camera, with the fragile newborns squirming and vocalizing for their mothers’ return, was a powerful reminder of the delicate balance of life in a bat maternity colony.
And the surprises didn’t stop there. Over the next two days, we documented even more births within the colony. Several more pups were born on June 8th and June 9th, suggesting this is peak birthing season for this group of big brown bats. These kinds of moments are exactly why we work so hard to set up and maintain these specialized live streaming camera systems—they allow us to witness and share the wonder of nature as it happens, in real time.
This kind of footage is not only rare but also valuable for education and conservation. It offers a front-row seat to one of nature’s more secretive life cycles and helps build appreciation for these often misunderstood creatures. We’ll be keeping a close watch on the colony in the coming weeks as the pups grow, begin to open their eyes, and eventually take their first flights later this summer.
Unexpected Babysitters: Bat Pups Left Alone—And Sometimes Not
A Surprising Twist in Maternity Behavior
When the pups were born on the afternoon of June 7, we expected the typical maternal routine: mothers giving birth and then leaving their young behind to forage, returning periodically at dusk and dawn. This is well‑documented among many temperate bat species—mothers nurse pups, then forage while pups stay clustered in safe roosts or “crèches” and remain until capable of flight.
Seeing One Adult Stay Behind
Our cameras captured something less common: an adult bat—likely a female—was observed staying behind with the new pups while the rest of the mothers flew off. According to scientific observations from Africa and North America, such cooperative or communal behavior does occur in some species: older females or “babysitters” will remain with pups that are not their own as part of a warm, defensive crèche .
How Typical (or Unique) Is This?
While crèche‑style babysitting has been reported—e.g., one non‑maternal adult guarding several pups—we don’t yet know how widespread this is in our local big brown bat colony. Most studies emphasize mothers leaving pups en masse in communal roosts for periods of torpor, with no specific adults standing watch. Our live footage suggests something rare may be occurring: either true alloparental babysitting or variable behavior based on colony structure or brood timing.
Why It Matters
If this “guardian” behavior repeats, especially as more pups are born over the next days, it may indicate a complex social strategy—whether maternal sharing of duties (alloparenting) or a form of communal caregiving promoting pup survival. Crèche systems may help conserve energy or reduce infant loss and have been studied in species like greater spear‑nosed bats and Mexican free‑tailed bats. But no one has documented such behavior in big brown bat maternity colonies—so this could be an unprecedented observation.
What to Watch For Next
Repeat babysitters? Keep an eye for non-maternal adults consistently left with pups.
Protective behavior: Do these adults deter predators or regulate pup temperature?
Reuniting patterns: How soon do pup and mother reunite—does the babysitter stay in place or rejoin colony later?
Each of these clues could reveal whether we’re witnessing a unique caregiving variation or a behavior simply overlooked until now.
Watching, Learning, and Sharing: The Story of Our Bat Camera
As we continue to monitor this remarkable bat colony, we know there is still so much to learn. Each evening brings new activity, new questions, and sometimes—like this past week—unexpected discoveries that challenge what we thought we knew about bat behavior. That’s the beauty of live nature streaming: it allows all of us to observe wildlife in real time, and often, we find ourselves learning right alongside scientists, educators, and wildlife enthusiasts like you.
We’ll be keeping a close watch on the colony as the pups grow, develop, and eventually take their first flights later this summer. And rest assured, any new behaviors we observe—whether it’s communal caregiving, pup development milestones, or other surprises—will be shared here in future updates. We’re excited to be on this journey together and invite you to keep watching, learning, and celebrating the fascinating world of bats with us.
Byadmin