Little Bent-wing Bat
Click to enlarge image
© Australian Museum
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Miniopterus
- Species
- australis
- Family
- Vespertilionidae
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Subclass
- Eutheria
- Subphylum
- Vertebrata
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Kingdom
- Animalia
Little Bent-wing Bats are vulnerable to disturbance from human visitors to cave roosts
Image: G B Baker© Australian Museum
Introduction
Many hundreds of Little Bent-wing Bats roost together in a colony, often sharing their roosts with Common Bent-wing Bats.
Habitat
Little Bent-wing Bats roost in caves and mine tunnels, and also tree hollows. Many hundreds of these bats roost together in a colony. Often they share their roosting site with colonies of Common Bent-wing Bats.
Distribution
Feeding and diet
Little Bent-wing Bats feed on small insects that fly beneath the canopy of thick forests. They are agile fliers, having to manoeuvre through the trees to catch their prey.
Life history cycle
Female Little Bent-wing Bats have a single baby in summer. They leave their babies in nursery caves at night to go and hunt, returning in the morning.
Conservation status
Little Bent-wing Bats are vulnerable to disturbance from human visitors to cave roosts, destruction of caves by limestone mining, and loss of feeding habitat by forestry operations, clearing and land degradation from agriculture.
Little Bent-wing Bat in cave
Image: G B Baker© Australian Museum
