Emballonuridae is a family of bats commonly known as sheath-tailed or sac-winged bats. I’m surprised these bats aren’t better known, because they have very uniquely appealing little faces. I think it’s the perpetually upturned nose.
They also have a stunning variety of colors, from the pure-white northern ghost bat to the dark chocolate of the Hill’s sheath-tailed bat.
Among them are some excellent camoflaugers, such as the proboscis bat, which looks like a bit of lichen or damaged bark on a tree.
In fact, many species in Emballonuridae roost on the trunks and branches of trees, in broad daylight, depending on their camouflage to keep them safe. They like to do it in neat little lines.
Sometimes they also stack.
You may have noticed their short little tailed. They’re sometimes called sheath-tailed bats because these tails protrude out of the membrane between their back legs, which can be pulled up to “sheath” the tail. Here’s a video if you don’t quite understand what I mean.
As I mentioned earlier, they’re also called sac-winged bats. This is because they have special pouches near their wrists designed to release pheromones into the air when they flap their wings. Below is a close up of the pouch, closed and then opened.
For the most part these are very small bats, with weights as low as three to four grams- one of the smallest, the proboscis bat, can get caught in spiderwebs and eaten.
Aside from roosting in trees, these bats roost in caves, crevices, and occasionally, human-made structures like wells or stone tombs. Because of this, several species are known as tomb bats. They’re pretty adorable little harbingers of death if you ask me.
Photo credits:
Main set (species in photo caption): Bat Conservation Intl / Jasmine Vink / University of KwaZulu-Natal / Merlin Tuttle / Michael Penney
Emedded in text: Bateleur Nature Reserve / ARKive / Riley Pearce / PSUNHM / Christian Ziegler
honduran white tent bats roosting under a heliconia leaf, which they sever down the length of its midrib to create a ‘tent’ that provides a waterproof shelter and protection from potential predators.
when bats do it they’re displaying ingenuity and adaptive evolution but when i do it it’s “what are you doing in my backyard? why do you always do this to my heliconia leaves?”
I KNOW I’VE POSTED THIS PHOTO BEFORE BUT, TBT, DO YOU GUYS REMEMBER THE TIME A BAT FLEW INTO MY ROOM IN LIKE JANUARY
he came in all cold an sluggish and very little, took a little nappy-nap in my sweater’s pocket till he warmed up, and left
he’s my bro
Okay, please please do not touch bats, especially if they look unwell. The last comment person got very lucky because bats are the #1 carrier of rabies and they have the ability to aerosolize rabies, meaning you don’t necessarily have to be bitten.
When I was in undergrad studying animal science/pre-veterinary medicine, there was a guy in the nearest major city to my school who decided to pick up a sickly looking bat and put it in a box and bring it on public transit. Found out later the bat had rabies. The state+the CDC had to track down every single person who had been on that bus to give them rabies shots. Every. Single. One. It was a public health nightmare.
I know they’re adorable and if you live in a country that is rabies free (which is just the UK and Japan) then ignore this but otherwise PLEASE be careful handling wild bats or any wild animal! Rabies is just one of many zoonotic diseases (diseases that can pass from animals to people and vice versa) and unless you know what you’re doing and what precautions to take, you are putting yourself and others at risk by handling wild animals
^This is why, btw. In the era before germ theory, bats were these creepy scary things that defied miasma theory and where your cousin who touched one might have gone ballistic and then mysteriously died. That’s one of the reasons it got associated with vampire mythos, and why bats’ wings became so ubiquitous in anglo-christian depictions of fallen angels.
No need to be nervous! Bat wing membrane is much stronger than human-made materials like rubber or plastic; the closest equivalent would probably be silicone. (AKA, the stuff used to make the wings for Bat Bot!) But unlike silicone, bats also have the ability to make their wing membranes stiffer or more flexible using rows of unanchored muscles beneath the skin. So if they happen to run into an obstacle, they can adjust it instantly.
Furthermore, bats have an incredible healing ability when it comes to their wings. They can heal almost any hole or tear, given enough time. Small puncture wounds are actually quite common, but the bats can still fly just fine as long as they’re not TOO big. Broken or fractured bones are much more likely to ground a bat than holes in the wing membrane, as a matter of fact.
Below you can see a western yellow bat with a large number of healed scars on its wing- this is more than you’d usually find, but it shows just how resilient they are!
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 