Tent-making bat
Uroderma bilobatum
— Where the name comes from
Uroderma is “tail skin”, from the Greek ourá and dérma, for the broad interfemoral membrane in an animal that has no tail; bilobatum is the Latin “two-lobed”, for the shape of the nose leaf. The common name, however, is the only one that says anything about this animal: it is the most prolific tent-maker of any mammal.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Bats
- Habitat
- Rainforest, palm and banana plantations, gardens
- Range
- From southern Mexico to Peru and Brazil
- Size
- 5.9–6.9 cm of body, 40 cm wingspan, 13–20 g
- Diet
- Frugivore — figs and other fruit
- Lifespan
- Little known
— Characteristics
- 01
It has four white stripes on the face and one along the back.
- 02
It cuts the veins of leaves to make them fold down into a tent.
- 03
A tent holds from two to about fifty animals and lasts for weeks.
— What sets it apart
It builds at least five different kinds of tent, each suited to a shape of leaf. On a palm it cuts the side veins so that the two halves hang down in a double pitch; on a broad Heliconia leaf it scores a semicircle that makes the outer part collapse; on a compound leaf it gnaws the leaflet stalks until it closes like an umbrella. They are repeated, recognisable patterns, which researchers catalogue as if they were architectural types — and each calls for a different order of cuts.
