Pocketed Free-tailed Bat
Nyctinomops femorosaccus

• Order: Chiroptera
• Family: Molossidae (Free-tailed Bats)
• Species: Nyctinomops femorosaccus (nick-TIN-oh-mops fem-oh-row-SACK-us)
• Common English Names: Pocketed Free-tailed Bat
• Common Spanish Names: Murciélago De Cola Libre

Nyctinomops femorosaccus. National Park Service photograph (Saguaro National Park).

Remarks

This species is an inhabitant of semiarid to arid desertlands (Tuttle, 2003). It has been found using diurnal roosts in caves, crevices in high cliff faces, rock outcroppings, and under the roof tiles of buildings (Schmidly, 1997). The nursery colonies are typically small, with fewer than 100 individuals within the roost (Tuttle, 2003). It appears from capture records that this species is a summer resident of the Big Bend area; nothing is known about the winter habits of these bats (Davis and Schmidly, 1994).

References

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.

A. Ruth Huckaby, Graduate Student, BIOL 5301-Natural History of the Chihuahuan Desert, June, 2006.

Huckaby Update: 22 June 2006

Last Update: 21 Jul 2009