Spotted bat
Euderma maculatum
— Where the name comes from
Euderma is “beautiful skin”, from the Greek eu- and dérma, and for once it is an explicit aesthetic judgement: the describer found this animal beautiful. Maculatum records the three large white spots, two on the shoulders and one on the rump, that stand out on a coal-black coat. The ears, enormous and translucent pink, complete a look unlike any other bat in North America.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Bats
- Habitat
- Crevices in cliffs and canyons in arid country; hunting in open sky
- Range
- Western North America, from British Columbia to central Mexico
- Size
- 11–13.5 cm including tail, 35 cm wingspan, 16–20 g
- Diet
- Insectivore — almost exclusively moths
- Lifespan
- Little known
— Characteristics
- 01
It has three sharp white spots on black and pink ears up to 5 cm long.
- 02
Its search call sits around 10 kHz and is audible to the naked ear.
- 03
It roosts in crevices on vertical faces that are extremely hard to reach.
— What sets it apart
It can be looked for by ear, on foot. Its search call is around 10 kHz, that is within the human hearing range, and in the canyons of the American south-west it comes down as a series of metallic clicks from above — so much so that the first surveys of the species were made by people walking the canyons at night, listening. It is the lowest frequency among North American bats, and the reason is the diet: eared moths cannot hear below 15 kHz.
