Councilmember Charles Allen

A BILL

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

To designate the Little Brown Bat as the official state mammal of the District of
Columbia.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
That this act may be cited as the ?Little Brown Bat Official State Mammal Designation
Act of 2019?.

Sec. 2. Official mammal ofthe District ofColumbia.

The Little Brown Bat (Myon's luci/irgus) is a species ofmouse-eared bat found
throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including on Kingman Island.

Bats are the only flying mammals. The Little Brown Bat can fly up to 22
miles per hour. True to its name, it is small, with a wingspan of 8?1 1 inches and a weight
of no more than 14 grams?the same as 14 small paper clips.

The Little Brown Bat uses echolocation to forage for flying insects such as
mosquitoes, ?ies, beetles, and moths along the edges of wetlands, including the
Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. It may consume up to 1,200 ofthese insects in a single
night.

The Little Brown Bat forms large summer maternity colonies, called roosts,

containing hundreds or even thousands of bats. They can roost in a variety of man-made
and natural structures, such as in hollow trees, under bridges, behind shutters, in
buildings, and in bat houses. Little Brown Bats hibernate in caves during the winter
months, which makes them especially susceptible to a fungal disease called White-Nose


The Little Brown Bat was once the most commonly found bat in North
America, but its population has been decimated by White-Nose In 2018, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature identi?ed the Little Brown Bat as an
endangered species, after White-Nose caused a loss of 90% of the population
in the northeastern United States.

(0 Little Brown Bats are long-lived?some have been documented to live up to
34 years?but each female bat produces only one pup a year. Hence Little Bat
populations may take a long time to rebound, even if a cure for White-Nose is
found.

The Little Brown Bat has good friends in the Girl Scouts of the Capitol Hill
Cluster School, troops 44046, 44047, and 44051, who studied Little Brown Bats and
proposed that the Council adopt the bats as the of?cial state mammal of the District of
Columbia.

The Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus) is hereby designated the of?cial
state mammal of the District of Columbia.

Sec. 3. Fiscal impact statement.

The Council adopts the ?scal impact statement in the committee report as the

?scal impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act

1975, approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; DC. Of?cial Code 

Sec. 4. Effective date.

This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto
by the Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto), a 30-day period of
congressional review as provided in section 602(c)(1) of the District of Columbia Home
Rule Act, approved December 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; DC. Official Code 1-

and publication in the District of Columbia Register.