Bats often go to the same places every night, especially for roosting and feeding, because they have excellent spatial memory and rely on familiar routes, but they also explore new areas depending on food availability and season. Most bats have a daytime roost where they sleep during the day, such as a cave, attic, tree cavity, or under a bridge, and they return to the same daytime roost daily for weeks, months, or even years if it remains safe, warm, and undisturbed. At night, bats have favorite feeding areas where insects are abundant, such as near water, forests, gardens, and around street lights that attract insects, and they will return to these same feeding sites nightly, following the same commuting routes from roost to feeding area using landmarks and echolocation. They also have night roosts where they rest briefly between feeding bouts to digest and groom. However, bats are adaptable and will change locations if food becomes scarce, if roosts are disturbed, if weather changes, or during seasonal migrations and hibernation when they move to different caves or buildings. Mother bats may use different maternity roosts in spring. So while bats have strong site fidelity and often use the same roosts and feeding areas every night for long periods, they are not strictly fixed and will move when conditions require, with some species migrating hundreds of miles seasonally.
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