Spotted Bat (Euderma maculatum). Image copyright PAWS in Lynnwood, WA.
Although unmistakable in appearance (the only bat with such contrasting colors), the Spotted Bat is not very well understood, primarily because of its scarcity in collections (Burt and Grossenheider, 1976; Davis and Schmidly, 1994:64). There have been scattered records of this bat throughout the western United States dating back to 1891, but it has only been taken with any regularity in California, Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, and southern Colorado (Davis and Schmidly, 1994). "It was first found in Texas by David Easterla, who captured two adult females in early August, 1967 in mist nets set above a pool in a shallow, barren, hot, dry canyon in the Big Bend National Park" (Schmidly, 1977:49). The infrequency of capture of this bat has caused much confusion and speculation regarding its habitat; however, some believe it to prefer the Ponderosa Pine belt in the mountains or a pinyon-juniper zone of plateau and mesa country (Alden, et al., 1999). Others suggest a habitat of desert areas, such as scrub country, but in fact little is known due to the exceptionally tall cliff-crevice roosting areas of these bats (Tuttle, 2003).
Alden, P.,; B. Cassie, P. Friederici, J. D. W. Kahl, P. Leary, A. Leventer, and W. B. Zomlefer. 1999. National Audubon Society field guide to the southwestern states. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Burt, W. H., and R.P. Grossenheider. 1976. A field guide to the mammals. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Davis, W. B., and D.J. Schmidly. 1994. The mammals of Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife Press, Austin.
Schmidly, D. J. 1977. The mammals of Trans-Pecos Texas including Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.
Tuttle, M. D. 2003. Texas bats. Bat Conservation International, Inc., Austin.
§ The Mammals of Texas, Online Edition
A. Ruth Huckaby, Graduate Student, BIOL 5301-Natural History of the Chihuahuan Desert, June, 2006.
Huckaby Update: 22 June 2006
Last Update: 21 Aug 2009