Greater bulldog bat

Large rabbits foot ( Noctilio leporinus )

The Great Hare mouth ( Noctilio leporinus ) is a species of bat in the family of hares mouths, which is native to Central and South America.

Description

The Great Hare mouth is as the name implies, the larger of the two species of hare mouths. The total length is 119-127 mm, the forearm length from 81.6 to 88.1 mm, the males are larger than females. The cheeks form in the mouth by the extended back muscle (musculus buccinator) a kind of bag, which is also present in the little rabbits foot ( Noctilio albiventris ). The ears are small and pointed, the tragus has finger-like outgrowths. The feet are greatly enlarged (32-34 mm), the calcar is long and bony and the claws long and robust. The coat is extremely short, the color between a pale orange to brown to gray varies. A clear, light stripe runs from the head down the spine. The peritoneum is usually whitish to pale orange.

Way of life

The Great Hare mouth is like most other bats nocturnal. The main activity time differs from that of the little rabbit 's mouth, which by a long pause has two separate periods of activity. The Great Hare mouth but through the whole night through active, which allows the coexistence of the two sister species by avoiding competition for food.

Diet

The Great Hare mouth feeds primarily on fish. The highly elongated feet serve as a kind of rake, with which the bat scours the surface of lakes, large rivers and bays in flight. The prey is close enough to the water surface, the Great Hare mouth can also detect using echolocation calls and targeted fish out of the water. Caught fish will briefly chewed and transported in the back pocket. However, In addition to fish the Great Hare mouth eats, especially during the rainy season also insects which it picks up from the water surface. A similar behavior was in other bat species as the sister species, the little rabbits foot, and Myotis known vivesi. It is believed that the fish-eating life of the great rabbit snout has evolved from hunting for insects on the water surface. Indeed, molecular genetic analyzes have shown that the large rabbit foot developed before about 0.28 to 0.7 million years ago from a style that resembled the little rabbit 's mouth.

Echolocation

The echolocation calls of the Great Hare mouth move 60-50 kHz and are therefore not applicable to the human ear heard. Up to 200 echolocation calls are emitted per second during the hunt, which each lasting 8 ms. The cries for a volume of over 137 dB, which corresponds approximately to that of a jet plane in 100 m distance.

Social structure

During the day hanging Large rabbit mouths usually in colonies of several hundred individuals, mostly in hollow trees like the kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra ), the Red Mangrove ( Rhizophora mangle ) and the Balatabaum ( Manilkara bidentata ). The only bat that was found along with the Great Hare mouth in such cavities in trees is the common vampire bat ( Desmodus rotundus ). Near the coast, the Great Hare mouth also uses bay caves, where occasionally other species of bats live like Mormoops megalophylla, Glossophaga soricina, the glasses leaf-nosed ( Carollia perspicillata ) and the common vampire bat. Females of the Great Hare Mauls stay together in a group, they each mark with a secretion by rubbing the head under the wing of other females. It was also observed that females hunt from a colony together. Males depend mostly separated from the females, with the exception of territorial males, which usually spend more than two reproductive seasons with the females. The Great Hare mouth thus seems to have a polygynous social structure.

Reproduction

Little is known about the reproduction of the Great Hare mouth. The females give birth to a single pup each year. Bearing females were observed from December to April, and in July and August, births from February to October. Mating takes place in autumn and winter. The males have pocket-like flaps of skin around the scrotum, which give off a musky odor, which probably plays a role in courtship.

Distribution and habitat

The Great Hare mouth comes from Mexico to northern Argentina, and on the Greater and Lesser Antilles before. The species is classified by the IUCN as safely.