Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Lesser mouse-tailed bats (Rhinopoma hard­wickii) range from as far east as Thai­land west­ward through Burma, India, Pak­istan, and Iran. They can also be found in the African Sa­hara mostly north of 15°N, but have been known to oc­cupy as far south as Kenya. (Benda, et al., 2010; Benda, et al., 2004a; Qum­siyeh and Knox Jones Jr, 1986)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native
• oriental
  • native
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Lesser mouse-tailed bats in­habit deserts and semi-deserts where roosts and food are avail­able. Within these cli­mates they are gen­er­ally found in grass­lands and oases (Benda, Aulagnier, and Palmeirim, 2010), but can oc­ca­sion­ally be found in gar­dens and or­chards (Benda et al., 2004). Their roosts con­sist of dry caves, houses, pyra­mids, un­der­ground tun­nels, and wells. In sum­mer months, they roost in small crevices, fis­sures, or be­tween boul­ders (Benda, Aulagnier, and Palmeirim, 2010). (Benda, et al., 2004b; Benda, et al., 2010; Davis, 2007)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• caves

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Lesser mouse-tailed bats get their com­mon name from their slen­der, long, free tail. The total body length ranges from 119 to 141 mm and the tail makes up ap­prox­i­mately 57 to 70 mm of that. The hind­foot, ear, and fore­arm length mea­sure 12 to 15 mm, 18 to 21 mm, and 52.4 to 60 mm re­spec­tively. (Qum­siyeh and Knox Jones Jr, 1986)

The skull of lesser mouse-tailed bats are short with 28 teeth and a den­tal for­mula of 1/2, 1/1, 1/2, 3/3. The skull is widest at the squamosal re­gion of the zy­go­matic arch. Other dis­tin­guish­ing fea­tures of the skull in­clude the loose tym­panic bone and an in­flated lacrimal re­gion. (Qum­siyeh and Knox Jones Jr, 1986)

Lesser mouse-tailed bats are small, with tails gen­er­ally longer than their fore­arms. Their backs are grey­ish brown to dark brown in color with pale un­der­sides. The snouts have a small tri­an­gu­lar nose­leaf and their tragi are well de­vel­oped. They have large rhom­boidal pinna that are con­nected across the fore­head and there are 10 trans­verse ridges that cross the ear. The uropatag­ium of lesser mouse-tailed bats are small and only en­close less than one quar­ter of the tail. (Davis, 2007; Qum­siyeh and Knox Jones Jr, 1986)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  10 to 12 g

  0.35 to 0.42 oz

• Range length

  119 to 141 mm

  4.69 to 5.55 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Lit­tle is known of the mat­ing sys­tems of lesser mouse-tailed bats.

Al­though lit­tle is known about lesser mouse-tailed bat re­pro­duc­tive bi­ol­ogy, they have a de­fined an­nual re­pro­duc­tive cycle. In­sem­i­na­tion oc­curs be­tween Feb­ru­ary and April, al­though ovu­la­tion does not occur until mid-March. Ges­ta­tion lasts about 95 to 100 days and young are born be­tween the sec­ond week of June and the end of July. Lac­ta­tion lasts up to 20 days, dur­ing which time lac­tat­ing fe­males are seg­re­gated from the group. (Karim and Baner­jee, 1989; Karim and Fazil, 1987; Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002)

Male lesser mouse-tailed bats take much longer than fe­males to reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity. Fe­males be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture be­tween 8.5 to 9 months of age, whereas males do not be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture until 16 to 17 months. (Karim and Fazil, 1987)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous
• delayed fertilization

• Breeding interval

  Lesser mouse-tailed bats breed annually.

• Breeding season

  Lesser mouse-tailed bats breed from late February to mid April.

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Range gestation period

  95 to 100 days

• Range weaning age

  20 (high) days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  8.5 (low) months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  9 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  16 to 17 months

Lit­tle is known about the parental in­vest­ment of lesser mouse-tailed bats.

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lit­tle is known of the lifes­pan and longevity of lesser mouse-tailed bats.

Be­hav­ior

Lesser mouse-tailed bats are ac­tive year round and use stored ab­dom­i­nal fats dur­ing the win­ter (Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002). Lesser mouse-tailed bats are adapted to with­stand ex­tremely hot, arid con­di­tions as well as low hu­mid­ity (Davis, 2007). (Davis, 2007; Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002)

Lesser mouse-tailed bats have been found roost­ing in small groups rang­ing from 4 to 10 in­di­vid­u­als (Davis, 2007) to large colonies com­posed of up to 500 in­di­vid­u­als (Benda, Aulagnier, and Palmeirim, 2010). Sex­ual seg­re­ga­tion may occur and is gen­er­ally di­rected to­wards lac­tat­ing fe­males (Karim and Fazil, 1987). (Benda, et al., 2010; Davis, 2007; Karim and Fazil, 1987)

Lesser mouse-tailed bat flight pat­terns con­sist of al­ter­nat­ing flut­ters and glides. This gives the ap­pear­ance that they are ris­ing and falling, so that from a dis­tance, they may be mis­taken for a small bird (Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002). (Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002)

• Key Behaviors
• troglophilic
• flies
• nocturnal
• motile
• social
• colonial

Home Range

Lit­tle is known about the rang­ing be­hav­ior of lesser mouse-tailed bats.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Lesser mouse-tailed bats are con­sid­ered to be "acousti­cally prim­i­tive" be­cause they use sig­nals with four or more har­mon­ics and with lit­tle fre­quency vari­a­tion (Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002). They emit long con­stant fre­quency (CF) calls at 30 to 34 kHz with a peak en­ergy at 32 kHz (Davis, 2007). They emit these CF sounds when fly­ing in open spaces for ap­prox­i­mately 48 ms. When they fly in groups, lesser mouse-tailed bats emit CFs in three bands. How­ever, when they fly solo the bat emits CFs in only one band. Fre­quency mod­u­lated (FM) sounds are pro­duced only as they leave their roost or shortly be­fore land­ing (Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002). (Davis, 2007; Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• echolocation
• chemical

Food Habits

Lesser mouse-tailed bars are in­sec­tiv­o­rous bats with bee­tles mak­ing up about 50% of their diet. They also feed on moths and neu­ropter­ans, but their over­all diet is much less di­verse than other bats (Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002). Lesser mouse-tailed bats swoop and glide at 5 to 10 me­ters off the ground when in search of food (Davis, 2007). (Davis, 2007; Whitaker Jr. and Yom-Tov, 2002)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Barn owls are the only known preda­tor of lesser moused-tailed bats.

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • barn owls (Tyto alba)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Lit­tle is known of the ecosys­tem roles that lesser mouse-tailed bats play.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive ef­fects of lesser mouse-tailed bats on hu­mans. How­ever, since they are in­sec­ti­vores, they may help con­trol the pop­u­la­tion of in­sect pests.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known neg­a­tive im­pacts of lesser mouse-tailed bats on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Pop­u­la­tions of Rhinopoma hard­wickii are com­mon and wide­spread with no major threats of de­cline. In 1996 it was cat­e­go­rized as vul­ner­a­ble, but was changed to least con­cern in 2004, and has sus­tained the same cat­e­go­riza­tion ever since. (Benda, et al., 2010)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern

Con­trib­u­tors

Tara Whit­ing (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Christo­pher Yahnke (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Ale­cia Stew­art-Mal­one (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Laura Podzikowski (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

Benda, P., S. Aulagnier, J. Palmeirim. 2010. "Rhinopoma hard­wickii" (On-line). IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed Au­gust 12, 2011 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​19599/​0.

Benda, P., V. Hanák, M. An­dreas, A. Re­iter, M. Uhrin. 2004. Two new species of bats (Chi­roptera) for the fauna of Libya: Rhinopoma hard­wickii and Pip­istrel­lus ruep­pel­lii. MY­OTIS, 41-42: 109-124. Ac­cessed Au­gust 12, 2011 at http://​www.​nm.​cz/​download/​pm/​zoo/​benda_​lit/​Benda2004myotis.​pdf.

Benda, P., M. Ruedi, S. Aulagnier. 2004. New data on the dis­tri­b­u­tion of bats (Chi­roptera) in Mo­rocco. Ves­per­tilio, 8: 13–44. Ac­cessed Au­gust 12, 2011 at http://​www.​nm.​cz/​download/​pm/​zoo/​benda_​lit/​Benda2004vesp_​a.​pdf.

Davis, L. 2007. "An In­tro­duc­tion to the Bats of United Arab Emi­rates" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed Au­gust 12, 2011 at http://​www.​echoesecology.​co.​uk/​documents/​BatsoftheUAE_​000.​pdf.

Karim, K., M. Fazil. 1987. Early em­bry­onic de­vel­op­ment and preim­plan­ta­tion changes in the uterus of the bat Rhinopoma hard­wickei hard­wickei (Gray) (Rhinopo­mati­dae). Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Anatomy, 178: 341–351.

Karim, K., S. Baner­jee. 1989. Re­pro­duc­tion in the In­dian mouse-tailed bat, Rhinopoma hard­wickei hard­wickei (Chi­roptera, Rhinopo­mati­dae). Re­pro­duc­tion, Fer­til­ity and De­vel­op­ment, 1: 255–264.

Qum­siyeh, M., J. Knox Jones Jr. 1986. Rhinopoma hard­wickii and Rhinopoma mus­catel­lum. Mam­malian Species, 263: 1-5. Ac­cessed Au­gust 12, 2011 at http://​www.​science.​smith.​edu/​msi/​pdf/​i0076-3519-263-01-0001.​pdf.

Whitaker Jr., J., Y. Yom-Tov. 2002. The Diet of Some In­sec­tiv­o­rous Bats from North­ern Is­real. Mam­malian Bi­ol­ogy, 67: 378-380. Ac­cessed Au­gust 12, 2011 at http://​www.​tau.​ac.​il/​lifesci/​zoology/​members/​yom-tov/​articles/​The_​diet.​pdf.