Scientific Name: Tadaridabrasiliensis

Aka Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat

Habitat:Americas: regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America. Range in elevation from sea level to 2690m. Roosts in caves, buildings, mine tunnels, under bridges (Gardner, 439).

Diet: Insectivorous

Interesting Facts:

  • Lives in large colonies (can number in the multimillions). Even in these huge colonies, mothers can find their own pups based on scent (Gardner 439).
  • The Bracken Bat Cave in Texas is the largest known bat colony in the world. Over 20 million bats live in the cave, which is more bats than there are people living in Mumbai, India—one of the world’s largest human cities. When the bats leave the cave, the group is so large that it looks like a huge storm on radar. The bats will eat over 200 tons of bugs in one night.
  • Some Mexican free-tailed bats can fly up to 250 miles (402 km) in a single night. They can fly up to 10,000 feet (3,048 m) high and reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour (97kph).
  • Official state bat of Oklahoma and Texas.
  • Featured as the logo for Bacardi Rum – the first distillery in Cuba housed fruit bats in its rafters. This is also fitting, since Cuban and Spanish lore say that bats symbolize good health, good fortune, and family unity. http://www.bacardilimited.com/our-heritage/the-early-years

http://facts.randomhistory.com/bat-facts.html

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Range: Western Venezuela and Colombia, south through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, east across northern and central Argentina into Paraguay, Uruguay, and southeastern Brazil. Elsewhere, from Panama north through Mexico into the United States, Cuba and the Bahamas (Gardner, 438).

 

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