Bumblebee Bat: Encyclopedia - Bumblebee Bat

Bumblebee Bat

Conservation status: Endangered

The Bumblebee Bat or perhaps more correctly Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat, (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) is the world's smallest species of bat at 30-40mm in length and a weight of 2 grams (about as much as a dime). It is the only known species in its genus and is found in a tiny region of western Thailand, in the Sai Yok National Park, Kanchanaburi Province.

Image:Specimen.jpg The bat is named a Bumblebee Bat because it is about the size of a bumblebee. It competes with the Etruscan Pygmy Shrew for the title of world's smallest mammal. At issue is whether skull size or mass defines "smallest"; the shrew is lighter but the bat's skull, shown left, is shorter at 11mm.

The Bumblebee Bat has reddish-brown upperparts, although the species seems to occur as another color phase that has greyer upperparts. The underside is always a paler version of the top. The ears are relatively large and extend beyond the rather pig-like snout when lying forward.

They are most active at dusk when they fly around the tops of bamboo clumps and teak trees to feed on insects. The wings are quite long and broad with pointed tips and dark membrane. They seem to be shaped for hovering flight and indeed gut contents of specimens do include spiders as well as other small insects that have been gleaned off foliage. Insects are caught in straight flight also.

Bumblebee Bats roost in the hot upper chambers of caves in limestone hills, just about as far away from the entrance as possible so that the small colony — up to 15 individuals — can fit without the bats being too close to each other.

Bumblebee bats are small both in size and in number and were unknown to the world at large prior to 1974. They were first located in 1973 by Thai biologist Kitti Thonglongya, who sent a few specimen to his British colleague, John E. Hill. When Kitti Thonglongya died suddenly in February 1974, John Hill described the species and named it in honor of its discoverer. Their already restricted habitat has been highly affected by deforestation and unsustainable levels of teak logging. In 1982, the Royal Forest Department of the Thailand Government only found 160 of them living in 3 caves, despite extensive surveys. Bumblebee bats are now considered one of the twelve most endangered species on the planet.

Categories: Endangered species | Bats

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bumblebee Bat", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki