Mammals of Fort Bowie NHS

The Mexican long-tongued bat has short ears, a long, narrow rostrum, big eyes, a minute tail, and a leaf-like projection of skin above the nostrils called a nose leaf. It is a medium sized bat that weighs about 25 grams and is between 3 and 3.5 inches long. The fur is gray to brown above and lighter on the underside. The tongue of the Mexican long-tongued bat extends up to 1/3 of its body length.

Choeronycteris mexicana feeds and pollinates many different cacti species including saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), organ-pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi), agaves (Agave spp.), and cardon (Pachycereus pringlei).

This bat lives in a variety of habitats, including desert, semidesert grassland, montane, riparian, tropical deciduous forests, and urban environments. The bat is most frequently found roosting in desert canyons, but also in deep caves, mines, rock crevices, and abandoned buildings.

This species is common throughout Mexico. Its range extends through Central and northern South America and to the southern parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. However, it is rare in the United States. less ↑

The lesser long-nosed bat is gray or yellow-brown above and reddish-brown below, with a short tail and small ears. It has a triangular shaped nose leaf, a projection of skin above the nostrils, which juts from the end of its nose. This species of bat is medium-sized and weighs less than 25 grams. It is 2.5 to 3 inches long and has a 14 inch wingspan. Juvenile lesser long-nosed bats have gray fur.

These bats eat nectar, pollen, and fruit and feed exclusively on night-blooming cacti, with columnar cactus flowers and fruits and agave flowers representing its core diet.

This species is found in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico south to western Mexico and Baja California del Sur. In 1988 these bats were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. less ↑

Common throughout its range, the pallid bat occurs in arid and semi-arid regions throughout northern Mexico and the western United States. Pallid bats eat beetles, grasshoppers, and moths, and they forage for slow-moving prey, such as scorpions, flightless arthropods, and sometimes lizards, at and near ground level. They use echolocation to detect prey, but also use their large ears to listen for prey movements. Pallid bats visit flowers in their hunt for insects, and are natural pollinators of several species of cactus.

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Big brown bats make their homes in rural areas, towns, and cities, sometimes choosing barns, houses, or other buildings as roosts. Males usually live alone; females gather in maternity colonies in the spring and summer to give birth and raise their young. A maternity colony may include 20 - 75 adults and their offspring. Females in the eastern United States usually give birth to twins; those in the West usually have a single pup each year. Females may return to the same colony year after year. On warm, dry evenings, the bats leave the roost shortly after sunset to forage for insects especially flying beetles which they catch and eat in the air. When the weather is cold or wet, they may stay in the roost, dropping their body temperature and living on stored fat. In the winter, they hibernate. Many migrate a short distance (less than 80 km) to find mines or caves for hibernation, but some spend the winter in attics or walls where the temperature is cool but stays above freezing.

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Southwestern myotis live in a variety of southwestern mountain habitats, from desert grasslands up into pine and mixed coniferous forest in the United States, and in desert and grassland in Mexico. These bats and two other myotis species, the long-eared myotis and the fringed myotis, are able to hover and pluck insects from surfaces; most myotis bats catch their prey on the wing. The three species are known as hovering-gleaning bats. The southwestern myotis probably hibernates in caves, but has not yet been found in hibernation.

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"California myotis are found in deserts and arid basins. They drink at small waterholes, and when they forage, they fly low and slow over water and other open areas, and at forest edges. Many California myotis are active in winter, but some that live at higher elevations or farther north hibernate. Mating usually occurs in the fall, and sperm is stored in the female's uterus until spring, when ovulation and fertilization occur. A single pup is born in June or July, when food is plentiful. The young develop rapidly and can fly in about a month."

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The eastern small-footed myotis is one of the smallest North American bats. It has a limited range, occurring only in eastern deciduous and coniferous forests. This bat tolerates colder temperatures than many bats, entering hibernation later than many (November to December) and leaving it rather early (in March). It has a slow, erratic flight that is characteristic and can be used to help identify the species. Rather remarkable for a mammal of such small size, this bat is known to live to 12 years. By comparison, most small rodents and shrews live only about 18 months or less.

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"Echolocation of little brown bats has been well studied since the invention of bat detectors, electronic devices that can ""hear"" the ultrasonic calls bats make, which are usually beyond the range of human hearing. Little brown bats typically produce calls lasting about 4 milliseconds. While cruising, they emit echolocation calls about 20 times per second, spacing the pulses at 50 millisecond intervals. When attacking airborne prey, the pulse rates rise drastically, to 200 per second, with only 5 millisecond gaps between calls. The information the bats receive through echolocation allows them to orient themselves, and to locate, track, and evaluate their insect prey. Little brown bats feed near or over water, mainly on aquatic insects such as caddis flies, mayflies, and midges, and typically consume half their body weight in insects each night. Nursing females may eat up to 110 percent of their body weight each night."

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"The fringed myotis belongs to the long-eared myotis group, all of which tend to be high-elevation forest bats. This species has the shortest ears and occupies the lowest elevation of the group. Its wings are short and broad, indicating maneuverable, low-speed flight, and it seems to be a specialist at gleaning small beetles from vegetation surfaces. Beetles may make up 70 percent of its diet. Fringed myotis have one baby a year, and it is huge in proportion to the mother's size. A newborn's weight is 22 percent, and its length is 54 percent, of the mother's. Newborn bats are left hanging in special roosts, where 2-10 adult females are always present to care for them. The other females fly out at dusk to forage and return at dawn, but are there as necessary to nurse their young.  Before they are three weeks old, the young can fly, and by three weeks, they are as large as adults."

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The cave myotis, one of the larger myotis species, has a stubby-nosed appearance. The ears reach only to the end of the short nose when bent forward. Typical of North American bats, cave myotis feed on insects, especially moths and beetles. They breed seasonally, giving birth to a single offspring of about 3 g, or 25 percent or more the weight of the mother. The young are flying and foraging for insects when they are about a month old, but nurse for about six weeks. A nursing bat hangs upside down next to its mother, nestled in her wing, sometimes hanging onto the roost with one foot and its mother with the other; the female has a nipple under each arm, near her armpits.

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"Long-legged myotis typically occupy mountainous or relatively rugged areas. They often live in coniferous forest, although they are sometimes found in oak or streamside woodlands, and even deserts. They feed mostly on moths, but are opportunistic, eating whatever soft-bodied insects are most abundant. When several long-legged myotis are feeding in the same area, and two bats seem to be on a collision course, they alter their echolocation calls, adding a lower-frequency ""honk."""

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Western pipistrelles sometimes leave their roosts before sundown, and can be mistaken for late-flying butterflies, because they are so tiny and fly slowly and erratically, with much fluttering of their wings. Most common at low elevations in desert scrub and arid grassland habitats, they are also found in adjacent woodlands. Although they range over the arid West, western pipistrelles require a ready source of water—a lake, stream, or even a swimming pool. They—and some shrews—are the smallest mammals in North America, with weights ranging from 2—6 g. In spite of their tiny size, western pipistrelles usually give birth to twins, which are born and raised in small maternity colonies. The largest colony yet found comprised just four female bats and their eight young.

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