Millie Mine Bat Series - Iron Mountain, MI - Flora and Fauna Information Signs on Waymarking.com

Three fauna signs grouped around a mine shaft, explain: What is a bat?; Why do bats hibernate?; and Millie Mine bat species. The Millie Mine is a critical hibernating and breeding location for up to 50,000 bats—one of the largest known concentrations of bats in the Midwest. Big brown and little brown bats from all over the region come here to hibernate during the cold winter months.

The bats remain in the mine shaft throughout the winter and begin emerging in late April and May. The fly back to their forested home areas to spend the summer where they roost during the day under the bark of dead trees or in other small crevices. In the late summer the begin to migrate again, returning to the mine in late August and early September.

The best time to view bats is in September and early October, right at dusk, as the bats begin to emerge from the mine. Early risers can see and hear their return a half an hour before dawn. A steel cage has been erected over the top of this mine and the area around it has been developed as a bat interpretive site, including seating.

Bat species include the Big Brown Bat, Little Brown bat, the Northern Long eared Bat and the Tri-colored Bat, which are four of the nine bat species found in Michigan. The abandoned iron mines of Michigan provide excellent bat habitat, as they are free of natural disturbances and have a stable year around temperature among other things that bats favor. Discovered in 1992 by local spelunker Steve Smith, It is one of the best interpreted and best sites to view bats in the Midwest, with some 50,000 of them flying out nightly.

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