Common Tent-making Bat (Uroderma bilobatum) lives in tropical rainforest across Central and South America. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Common Tent-making Bat
- During its brief 30-minute flight, a tent-making bat's heart thunders at roughly 900 beats per minute, yet it spends most of its day resting at a much slower 375 beats per minute. At night the resting rate eases to about 490 beats per minute, and twice-hourly the bat drops its pulse to 200-250 beats per minute for several minutes, a strategy that saves enough energy to keep its tiny fat stores from vanishing within a day.
- These bats turn a single banana or palm leaf into a shelter by chewing the midrib so the leaf folds into an inverted-V tent that can protect a colony for up to 60 days. A tent may host anywhere from 2 to 59 individuals, and the bats favor tall, but not the tallest, trees with younger fronds that sit higher off the ground, balancing predator safety with wind exposure.
- Weighing only 13-20 g and measuring 59-69 mm from head to tail, the tent-making bat is a compact flyer; its U-shaped tail membrane adds another 14-16 mm but lacks hair along the edge. Its dental formula of i 2/2, c 1/1, p 2/2, m 3/3 gives it 32 teeth, including the bilobed upper incisors that inspired its species name.
- Female tent-making bats can give birth twice a year; pregnant females have been seen in February and June in Panama and in July in Costa Rica, matching fruiting cycles. After a 4-5-month gestation they raise a single pup in maternity colonies of 20-40 adults, and the young become independent after just one month.
- Found from Oaxaca and Veracruz in Mexico down to Peru, Bolivia and southeastern Brazil, these bats inhabit low-elevation evergreen and deciduous forests, second-growth areas and fruit groves, usually below 600 m but occasionally as high as 1,500 m. Their wide range and common status keep them listed as Least Concern, though extensive lowland forest loss could threaten them.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeCentral and South America
HabitatTropical rainforest
DietInsects and fruit
About the Common Tent-making Bat
In the dappled twilight of the tropical forest, the common tent-making bat emerges, its delicate form silhouetted against the fading light as it flits with agile precision, weaving a intricate path through the underbrush. With a flutter of leathery wings, it alights upon a broad leaf, its tiny claws grasping the tender green as it begins to fashion its signature shelter, carefully folding and creasing the plant's pliable form into a protective tent. As the night deepens, the bat settles within its ephemeral abode, a tiny, hidden monarch of the forest's secret realm.
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