By Sarah Abbott
Geographic Range
The California leaf-nosed bat, the most northern member of the Phyllostomidae, lives in Northen Mexico, Baja California, southern Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada (Constantine 1998).
Habitat
This species can be found in the caves and abandoned mines in deserts of South West North America. In the winter, they choose roosts that are geothermically heated (Tuttle 1998).
Terrestrial Biomes:
desert or dune 
; chaparral .
Physical Description
(0.44 oz)
(13.39 in)
The Macrotus californicus has short broad wings and huge ears and eyes (Tuttle 1998). It's skull has no post orbital processes and a complete premaxillae.
Some key physical features:
endothermic ; bilateral symmetry .
Reproduction
Mating takes place in the fall, birth in the spring
During the summer, most males form separate colonies close to female groups of around 100-500 members. However, a handful of dominant males stay within the female colony and have harem groups consisting of 5-25 females and young (Tuttle 1998).
Mating systems:
polygynous .
Mating takes place in the fall. For the first several months of gestation, the embryo develops extremely slowly. Development speeds up in the spring, and young are born in June. (Tuttle 1998).
Key reproductive features:
iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous .
Infants are born with open eyes and ears and a full coat of fur. Infants nurse for one month. While females become sexually mature their first fall, males take a full year to reach sexual maturity (Harris 1999).
Parental investment:
female parental care .
Behavior
These bats have year long activity and do not migrate or hibernate. Members of this species are nocturnal, generally emerging 90-120 minutes after sunset during the summer, returning to their roost approximately one hour before sunrise (Harris 1999).
Food Habits
M. californicus is an insectivore. It uses its unuusal hovering ability to capture insects from the ground instead of from the air. It also uses its keen sense of vision over echolocation whenever light is adequate (Bell 1986). They feed up to 1.3km from their roost (Harris 1999).
Foods eaten include: crickets, moths, beetles, and grasshoppers, cicadas and caterpillars.
Primary Diet:
carnivore (insectivore ).
Animal Foods:
insects.
Ecosystem Roles
M. californicus plays an important role in insect control.
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
M. californicus, an insectivorous bat, helps to control pest populations.
Ways that people benefit from these animals:
controls pest population.
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List: [link]:
Vulnerable.
US Federal List: [link]:
No special status.
CITES: [link]:
No special status.
Populations of this species are definitely decreasing. Human disturbances in caves and the reestablishment of mines is driving these animals out of their homes.
For More Information
Find Macrotus californicus information at
Contributors
Sarah Abbott (author), University of Michigan.
Ondrej Podlaha (editor), University of Michigan.
