BAT GALLERY - BAT PROFILE

THE BANANA BAT - A tiny bat that lives in Banana Trees but does not eat bananas.

Characteristics: (Ref: Bats of Southern Africa, Peter John Taylor)

PHYSICAL:

• The Banana Bat, Neoromicia nanus, is a tiny bat, only 3 - 5 g in mass;
• Colour variable, from light brown to reddish brown, with under parts lighter;
• Wing & tail membrane darker brown compared with body colour;
• Ear tragus hatchet-shaped, with abrupt angle on its outer edge

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Banana Bat roosting in banana leaf	Nigel Fernsby carefully opening roost with 6 banana bats for filming & demonstration purposes
Examination of Banana Bat	Lactating Banana bat mother, showing nipple
Please note: Great care was exercised during removal and return of these bats to their roosts. Only qualified bat scientists should handle bats. Children should not be allowed to search for Banana Bats in leaves.

 

HABITAT

• Typically savanna woodland;
• They require proximity to water and banana or Strelizia plants in which to roost;

HABITS

• They roost in groups of up to about 6 or 7 individuals per leaf, but a banana grove of 30 - 50 plants may contain up to 100 individuals.
• According to research dine by D.C.D. and M. Happold in Malawi, males use house roosts during the breeding season.

FEEDING

• They are aerial feeders, foraging on the edges of woodland habitats.
• Diet comprises mostly of small beetles and moths, with fewer numbers of flies.

REPRODUCTION

• In the above-mentioned Malawi study, mating was promiscuous, as groups of bats comprising different males and females occupied unfurling banana leaves at different times during the mating season.
• After the young were born, and during the period of lactation, males roosted separately from the females.
• Gestation is 10 weeks and females almost always give birth to twins, and there is only one pregnancy per year.
• After mating, sperm is stored in both the male and female reproductive tracts.

DAY ROOST

• Typically the unfurling leaves of banana or Strelizia, but they also roost in the thatch of huts, rafters or other crevices within roofs

CALL

• Short duration (2 - 3 ms);
• Steep-FM search call with a range of 68 - 89 kHz;
• Dominant frequency of 74 kHz;
• A further broader-band call has also been recorded.

DISTRIBUTION & STATUS

• Widespread throughout Africa south of the Sahara;
• In Southern Africa, occurring in the extreme north of Namibia, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, most of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the northern and eastern parts of South Africa, extending along the east coast southwards to the Bedford district of the Eastern cape

More details about the book Bats of Southern Africa, by Peter John Taylor on our Bazaar page