Silky Short-tailed Bat

Fascinating facts about the Silky Short-tailed Bat

• Silky short-tailed bats switch to leaf-gleaning for insects and sip nectar in the dry season, but their core diet stays fruit-focused. By eating pipers and other small fruits and later excreting the seeds, they become one of the most important seed dispersers for those plants in their range.
• During a coronavirus survey on Brazil's Mato Grosso deforestation arc, researchers captured 57 bats representing 17 species, 7 subfamilies and 4 families. Silky short-tailed bats made up 17.5% of the catch (10 out of 57), ranking them as the second most common species after Carollia perspicillata. From 16 fecal samples, 2 tested positive for alphacoronaviruses (12.5% prevalence, 95% CI 3.49-36.02).
• Silky short-tailed bats roam from Mexico down to Brazil, covering ten countries across Central and South America. Their presence in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Mexico and Venezuela.
• Yet the same Brazilian study that found it comprised 17.5% of captured bats also highlighted that deforestation creates fragmented forests where bat diversity, and thus virus diversity, can rise.

At a glance

About the Silky Short-tailed Bat

In the twilight skies of the Neotropics, the Silky Short-tailed Bat dances on the wind, its delicate, velvety fur glistening like moonlit silk as it flits between the trees. With an effortless flutter of its dark, narrow wings, this diminutive creature navigates the dense forest with an uncanny agility, its large, round eyes drinking in the faint glow of the fading day. As it forages for fruit and nectar, its high-pitched calls weave a melodic tapestry through the evening air, a symphony of sound that underscores the bat's irrepressible vitality.

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