Long Nosed Bat

Bats are mammals, and members of the order Chiroptera. They are the second largest order of mammals in number of species. There are commonly found in caves.

A medium-sized bat with short ears, no tail, and a distinct nasal leaf; forearm furred above at elbow; upperparts drab brown, the hairs white basally; underparts pale drab, tips of hairs silvery.

The Mexican long-nosed bat feeds mainly on the nectar and pollen of agaves, and is found in Texas in June and July, when the plants are in bloom there. Then it migrates southward into Mexico, where it lives in pine-oak forests and deserts. It may be the main pollinator of a plant that has economic value in Mexico, the pulque plant. Little is known about the bat’s pattern of reproduction. Nursing females and juvenile bats have been seen in Texas in June and July.

Habits: This is a colonial, cave dwelling bat that usually inhabits deep caverns. The only known colony of these bats in the United States is found in a large cave on Mt. Emory in Big Bend National Park. The number of bats using the cave fluctuates widely from year to year with yearly estimates of population numbers ranging from zero to 13,650. Reasons for this instability are unknown, but it may be that this colony forms only in years when over-population or low food supply in Mexico force the bats to move northward. This bat has recently been classified as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

At the Emory Peak cave, L. nivalis forms a large cluster with half-grown young and adults intermingled. Adult males and females may be present. They share the cave with a large colony of big-eared bats (Plecotus); each colony roosts in a different part of the cave, but not more than 6 m apart. The air in this cave in considerably cooler in summer than that outside, and a distinct breeze blows through it at all times. The cave is not used in winter; the inhabitants migrate to Mexico. This bat has a strong, musky odor similar to that of the Brazilian free-tailed bat.

Life cycle:There is a great deal of variation in the mating and rearing behaviors of bats. Most bats mate during the fall, with fertilization of the egg delayed until the spring. Bats are the only mammals in which delayed fertilization occurs. Alternatively, a minority of bats wait until spring to mate. Beginning in April, many bats form maternity colonies consisting of adult females and their offspring; in the warmer, lower elevations of Arizona maternity colonies have been reported as starting as early as March. In some cases, maternity colonies also include non-reproducing yearling females who participate in the rearing duties. These colonies can be quite large, depending on the particular species of bat. Maternity colonies of Mexican free-tailed bats in Arizona may contain tens of thousands of individual bats (one maternity colony in Texas contains upwards of 20 million individuals!). Alternatively, a small number of bat species in Arizona are solitary or roost in small groups of fewer than five

Compared to other mammals of the same size, bats are the slowest to reproduce; they do not bear as many young at a time, nor do they undergo as many reproductive cycles in their lifetime. Most bat species produce just one baby, called a “pup”, per year following a gestation period that may last anywhere from 60 days to eight months in Arizona. The young are fed milk produced by the mother until four to six weeks of age, and are typically flight-ready by one month of age. Maternity colonies will begin dispersing late summer to early fall. Bats reach maturity anywhere from one to two years of age.

Bat conservation: The lesser long-nosed bat was listed as endangered on September 30, 1988. No critical habitat has been designated for this species. The lesser long-nosed bat is a small, leaf-nosed bat. It has a long muzzle and a long tongue, and is capable of hover flight These features are adaptations to feed on nectar from the flowers of columnar cactus, such as the saguaro and organ pipe cactus and from paniculate agaves, such as nocturnal pollen dehiscence (release of seeds or spores) and nectar production, light colored and erect flowers, strong floral order, and high levels of pollen protein with relatively low levels of nectar sugar concentrations.

If you have any questions about how to get rid of ants check out the rest of our website or go to our blog at http://nypestpro.blogspot.com.

Beyond Pest Control.

Our pest control specialists service all NYC boroughs, including Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island (both Nassau & Suffolk counties), Staten Island and even both Westchester & Rockland counties.