Naked-rumped Tomb Bat

About this species

Diet

Beetles, moths, grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches and flying ants

Habitat

Semi-arid and arid areas and tropical forest, with open areas to hunt and rocky or underground roosts

Range

Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa through the Middle East to Pakistan and India

Gestation

Nine weeks

The naked-rumped tomb bat is a sac-winged bat with a fairly flat head, a long cone-shaped snout, large eyes with a shallow depression between them, and triangular, backward-pointing ears. The fur is short and sleek but leaves the rump, lower belly and hind limbs bare, with a sharp division between furred and naked parts, so about a third of the body surface has no hair (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its range runs from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa through Egypt and the Middle East to Pakistan and India. It lives in semi-arid and arid areas and in tropical forests, wherever open hunting ground and rocky or underground roosts occur, and is often near human settlements but does not tolerate much disturbance at its roosts. It is social and streams from its day roost soon after sunset, eating beetles, moths, grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches and flying ants. Gestation is nine weeks, and the female may store sperm through hibernation (Wikipedia, general species account).

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)