The Mexican Free-Tailed Bat, aka Tadarida brasiliensis, has a tail that stretches a third past its body. The tails of most bats are limited to within the end membrane. Bats are mammals that can fly, and fossil evidence shows that they have existed for more than 50 million years.
What Do They Look Like
Mexican Free-tailed Bats are little bats at 3 ½ to 4 ½ ins long. They have a total wingspan of 12 to 14 inches. Mexican Free-tailed Bats weigh zero. 4 to 0. five ounces. Their colors differ
from dark reddish brown to gray. They have wide dark ears that point forward. Mexican Free-Tailed Bats have corrugated lips and long, slim wings. They have double talons on their thumb and feet claws. Mexican Free-Tailed Bats
are very fast flyers. Bats are nocturnal animals, plus they do their feeding during the night. They use echolocation, a system associated with sending out signals and hearing for the echoes, to find as well as to navigate as
they travel. Male Mexican Free-tailed Bats live as long as 18 years. Females live around thirteen years.
Habitats Associated with Mexican Free-tailed Bats
Mexican Free-tailed Bats are the most common bats present in the southwestern US, numbering 120-150 million. Mexican Free-tailed Bats are also discovered throughout
Mexico, Central The united states, and the northernmost parts of South usa. The largest group of Mexican Free-tailed Bats in the U. S. lives near San Antonio, Texas, where as many because 20 thousand can be found in a single
cave. The Carlsbad Caverns in New South america are well known for their population regarding Mexican Free-tailed Bats. In their peak population, these bats number at 8-9 thousand bats, but the number varies in the low hundreds
of thousands right now.
Mexican Free-Tailed Bats live in several different environments. They can be found in desert areas as well as juniper and forests that are at nine thousand feet above ocean level and higher. Female Mexican Free-Tailed
Bats contact form maternity colonies and reside in buildings, abandoned mines, limestone caves, and under connections. If a number of bats are located living in a building, they'll be female bats. Smaller groups of males can
be found in hollowed out trees.
They frequently live near areas of nevertheless water that attract the actual insects that they eat. The majority of Mexican Free-Tailed Bats migrate to Mexico and North America during the winter, even though sometimes
older males will stay in one place throughout the year. Right after migration, Mexican Free-tailed Bats will return to their roost from the previous year if possible. Sometimes, their former environment is destroyed due to
organic or man-made causes found to find a new home.
What Do These bats Eat
Mexican Free-tailed Bats eat nasty flying bugs, moths, beetles, and other bugs. They can eat up to half of their bodyweight in pests per day. Large colonies involving Mexican Free-tailed
Bats may eat several tons of pesky insects each night. Many of the insects which they eat are harmful to vegetation, so bats are considered good for the environment. Some of the harmful insect pests that Mexican Free-tailed
Bats eat are the cotton boll worm moths and the ingrown toenail ear-worm moth. Both of these moths can destroy acres connected with crops, and the bats maintain the numbers of these destructive unwanted pests down.
Mexican Free-tailed Bats eat soon after dusk each night and just prior to dawn in the morning; after the sunlight rises, they return to their own roost until it goes down once again. The bats will take flight as far
as 150 miles searching for food. These bats utilize echolocation to find insects. They will emit signals, and then pay attention to the echo bounce back, that enables them to determine where bugs are. They also use echolocation
to locate bodies of continue to water where insects tend to be abundant. And no, these bats are not blind , they are able to see fine, but they make use of echolocation to help assist all of them.
Should I Be Concerned For My Health?
Mexican Free-tailed Bats are like most other bats: filthy animals that live near where they excrete waste. One of the biggest health concerns regarding bats is histoplasmosis. Histoplasmosis is not a
Bat Disease, but a lung disease that you can contract from coming into contact with bats' droppings and living area. The disease spores are most likely found in and around their droppings, so it is best to stay as far away as possible from these droppings and call a professional to remove the droppings, sanitize the area, and replace any attic or wall insulation that has come into contact with the excrement.
Matching Habits
Mexican Free-tailed Bats mate within the fall. Females and males join with each other in large gatherings within caves, where they partner; the females outnumber the particular males, so
the males will certainly mate with several women. The females store the sperm while they hibernate. When they wake up in the springtime, they fertilize one ovum. Female bats will form maternity colonies in the early spring.
They have their babies in the cold weather, with each mother getting just one pup, and the infants all live together inside the hottest part of their refuge. The mothers do not remain in the same roost as the children,
but they feed them and handle them.
The actual babies are unable to fly for many weeks, and they are stuck with their mothers until they can fly. There are many predators associated with bats, including snakes, pet cats, raccoons, and owls. In case
a baby bat falls towards the floor of a cave, it will likely be left there as the mom will not risk getting seized up by a predator. When the babies are old enough to be able to fly, they will join all of those other colony
on their nightly hunts. At about 8 a few months old, the babies is going to be mature and will mate throughout the fall.