Impurest's Guide to Animals #72 - Ghost Bat
By ImpurestCheese 51 Comments
Back to work after an enjoyable week of cars, women and long, long phase 1 write-ups. Still at least I wasn’t tongue tied over last week’s issue on the Tongue Eating Louse. This week’s issue is a haunting achieved issue from @laflux. Hope you guys enjoy.
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Issue #72 – Ghost Bat
Kingdom – Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class – Mammalia
Order – Chiroptera
Family – Megadermaitdae
Genus – Macroderma
Species – gigas
Related Species – Ghost Bats are the only species in the genus Macroderma (1)
Range
Vampire or Ghost?
With a wingspan of over half a meter, and a body length of twelve centimetres, the Ghost Bat (also known as the False Vampire Bat across some of its range) is one of the largest micro-bats, even dwarfing some of the fruit bat species, which are classified as mega-bats. One of the most distinguishing features of this species, is the pale white fur that covers the bat’s body, and the slightly jutting lower jaw. While some bat species are crepuscular, being active around dusk and dawn, the Ghost Bat is truly nocturnal, often emerging from its roost hours after midnight.
Ghost Bats are highly carnivorous, feeding on small mammals (including other bats), birds, reptiles and large insects. Like most predatory bats, echolocation is used to pinpoint prey, along with fairly well developed vision and a keen sense of smell. Prey is usually subdued by being pinned to the ground with the bat’s enlarged thumb claws, and then swiftly dispatched with a bite to the neck (2). The bats themselves are predated on by owls.
Reproduction occurs once every two years in the Australian spring, between October and November, with a single pup being born per female. The mother then carries the pup on her chest for a month, before depositing it in the maternity roost, where she continues to feed it for another two months until the young bat is weaned and can look after itself in the wild.
Ecology 101: A Guide to Environmental Mechanics - #8 White Nose Syndrome and its effect on Bats
Two weeks ago @ms-lola asked the follow question; Anything on bats? I just discovered we're having a huge problem with their populations decreasing on the east coast of Canada due to something called "white nose" syndrome, or something like that. It would be great to hear about them
White nose syndrome is spread by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which grows naturally in caves in Europe, and has an invasive range that includes five provinces in Canada, and twenty four states in the USA. The fungus is an extremophile, where its optimal growing temperatures are between four and twenty degrees Celsius. In addition, the species can also survive in both acidic and alkaline soil conditions, allowing it to thrive in areas with different geologies.
P.destructans is an opportunistic parasite on torpid bats, and can live its entire lifespan on guano, rotting plant matter and organic detritus. The fungus is spread by contact, so in order to become infected a bat must physically touch a fungal colony within its natural environment. The fungus grows slowly, and can be seen forming white colonies around the bat’s face and on its wings. As the fungus leeches energy from the wing tissue, the bat’s body starts burning energy faster causing increased levels of carbon dioxide to be produced, until the blood eventually becomes acidic (4).
The increased acidity of the blood, causes the bat to awaken from torpor prematurely, often in cold conditions. Such behavioural abnormalities such as a bat flying in winter, is often a last ditch effort by the host to boost it’s now depleted fat reserves in order to survive winter hibernation.
At current the fungal infection is still able to be targeted by some anti-fungal agents, although a few do little to inhibit further growth due to an evolved immunity to those chemicals, as well as temperatures over twenty five degrees Celsius. That said, the wide spread nature of the disease makes it hard to combat, as does the migratory nature of their host species coupled with the funguses ability to lay dormant in warm weather, in the form of spores.
References
2. Hudson W.S., Wilson D.E (1986). "Macroderma gigas" (PDF). Mammalian Species 260 (260): 1–4
3. http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Top-10-Ghost-Animals-2.jpg
4. Michelle L Verant, Carol U Meteyer, John R Speakman, Paul M Cryan, Jeffrey M Lorch, David S Blehert (9 December 2014). "White-nose syndrome initiates a cascade of physiologic disturbances in the hibernating bat host". BMC Physiology 14 (10)
Picture References
1. http://www.koryoswrites.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/4943537942_7db10e5fbb_z.jpg
2. http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/displaydistmap.pl?type=species;id=66889
3. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ea/3b/20/ea3b20aefc6bdeadc2b45339e5fcf109.jpg
4. http://www.bats.org.uk/data/images/threats/white_nose_al_hicks_nydeccrop.jpg
Hmm bad news bats, as we continue to battle White Nose Syndrome, if the continued spread of this disease continues a lot more bats might be nothing more then ghosts. Next week we have a deep sea request from @ironspiderchan45 but until then critic, comment and discuss future species to cover as well as checking out past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.
Many Thanks
Impurest Cheese