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African false vampire, heart-nosed bat - MEGADERMA COR
Possibly Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Bat": "Bat" comes from Old Norse "ledhrblaka," "leather flapper." It became "bakka" and then "bat."
Description: A bat of medium size, with very large ears joined across the top of the head; relatively large eyes; heart-shaped noseleaf; no external tail. Pelage (fur) long, fine, blue-gray. Length of head and body about 3 in, forearm 2.2-2.4 in; weight 1-1.8 oz.
Location: Throughout east Africa.
Habitat: Dry acacia bushland.
Behavior: Sometimes placed in a genus of its own, Cardioderma, and closely related to the 2 species of bat-eating bats of India and Australia, the African false vampire is primarily an insect-eater. Much of its diet consists of flightless insects, which the bat sees from its hunting roosts on low branches or bushes, flies to the ground to capture, and returns to its perch to devour. The bats begin hunting at dusk and are low fliers. They rest during the day, remaining alert, hanging in caves. Widely spaced individuals roost in small colonies and rarely share their quarters with bats of other species, whose dead remains have been found under their roosts (suggesting that the false vampires killed and ate them).
Reproduction: A protracted breeding season apparently peaks in August; gestation is about 3 months. The single young clings to its mother for some 2 months.
Go to the Bats Page to get a general discussion of this flying mammal.
Go to the Bats Index to study the other bats included in America Zoo.
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