Little free-tailed bats primarily use echolocation in navigating their environment, as well as in hunting for food. Echolocation patterns vary geographically. Echolocation calls of Chaerephon pumilus in the Amani Nature Reserve of Tanzania were of a lower frequency and had longer gaps between pulses than in individuals of the same species living in South Africa. It is possible that echolocation calls vary with habitat or prey types. Little free-tailed bats, like most bats, have monochromatic vision. Vision in used in a secondary capacity to echolocation. It has recently been noted that many bats have elevated sensitivity to ultraviolet light, which is most abundant at dawn and dusk. Tactile and chemical cues may also be used extensively in social communication.
Communication Channels: acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; echolocation ; chemical
Little free-tailed bat populations are large, widespread, and do not seem to be rapidly declining. They are considered "least concern" by the IUCN.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
All bats can be carriers of diseases, such as rabies. Large colonies that roost in buildings are considered a problem as their droppings can create quite a smell.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (carries human disease); causes or carries domestic animal disease ; household pest
Little free-tailed bats prey on insects, which help humans by limiting insect pests, such as agricultural pests or insect disease vectors.
Positive Impacts: controls pest population
Little free-tailed bats are preyed on by many larger African birds and are predators of insect populations. Little free-tailed bats coexist peacefully in roosts with the larger mollosid, Mops condylurus.
Mutualist Species:
Juvenile little free-tailed bats have been know to have milk and remains of large cockroaches in their stomachs. Adults are purely insectivorous. They eat a wide variety of soft-bodied insects. Food sources remain relatively stable throughout the seasons, but the average size of prey is greatly increased during the rainy season.
Animal Foods: insects
Primary Diet: carnivore (Insectivore )
Chaerephon pumilus, commonly known as the little free-tailed bat, is found from Senegal to Somalia and South Africa. They are also found in Yemen and Madagascar.
Biogeographic Regions: ethiopian (Native )
Chaerephon pumilus can be found in a variety of habitats, from the semi-arid regions of the African north to areas of cleared rainforest farther south. Specimens have been found widely distributed throughout savannah/woodland terrain of Zambia, Guinea, Sudan and Zimbabwe, as well as the forests of the Congo basin. In Cape Province, South Africa they may be found in the mountainous Cape Macchia Zone. Little free-tailed bats naturally roost in the hollows and crevices of trees and in the crowns of some types of palm trees, where large colonies can find safety.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; forest
Other Habitat Features: riparian
There is no information on lifespan in little free-tailed bats.
Chaerephon pumilus is a small species of bat. Most little free-tailed bats have a body that is covered with blackish brown fur, fading to pale tan or even white hairs on the ventral surface where the body meets the wings. However, much variation is present throughout their geographic range. Little free-tailed bats have rounded ears, which are over-sized for their heads. Average mass is 11.1 g, average length in observed specimens is 252 mm, and average wingspan is 255 mm. Males are slightly larger than females. Chaerephon pumilus is distinguishable from other members of its genus by its small size and the species’ lack of a lobe projecting between the inner bases of the ears. Males have a forehead crest that creates a recognizable silhouette even when in flight.
Average mass: 11.1 g.
Average length: 252 mm.
Average wingspan: 255 mm.
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Known predators of little free-tailed bats include bat-hawks (Macheiramphis alcinus), hobby falcons (Falco subbuteo), Wahlberg’s eagles (Hieraaetus wahlbergi), and African goshawks (Accipiter tachiro). These prey birds successfully capture between 1 and 5 bats per night. Chaerephon pumilus may have developed its erratic flight pattern as an anti-predator tactic. Their nocturnal activity and cryptic coloration also help to protect them from some predators.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Little free-tailed bats are social and gregarious, living in large multi-male, multi-female colonies. Group ratios range between 3 and 21 females per male in a harem. Heavier males have larger harems than smaller males. Few females make movements between harems.
Mating System: polygynous
In Ghana, female little free-tailed bats give birth 3 times per year in synchrony with other females. The breeding season in Chaerephon pumilus varies by location. Timing of pregnancies has been shown to have a loose correlation with rainfall patterns. They have single births as a rule, although twinning has been documented in one case. Gestation period varies by location, from 60 days in the south to 72 days in the northern portion of their range. Uteri in little free-tailed bats are bicornuate, but implantation almost always occurs in the right horn. Young are nursed for 2 to 3 weeks after birth, after which they rapidly attain the ability to fly and feed themselves. Females are sexually mature in the breeding season after their birth. Sexual maturity in males occurred about 5 months after birth in Ghana, but research is inconclusive in other geographical areas studied.
Breeding interval: Little free tailed bats breed at varying intervals dependent on geographic location.
Breeding season: The breeding season for little free-tailed bats varies geographically.
Range number of offspring: 1 to 2.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Range gestation period: 60 to 72 days.
Range weaning age: 2 to 3 weeks.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 1 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 5 (low) months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
Lactation in little free-tailed bats lasts between 2 and 3 weeks, preceded by a 60 to 72 day gestation period. No paternal investment has been observed. Once the young are weaned, they become independent shortly afterwards.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
The little free-tailed bat (Chaerephon pumilus) is a species of the genus Chaerephon in the family Molossidae. It is widely distributed across Africa and islands around the continent.
The little free-tailed bat is one of the smallest species in the genus Chaerephon, and a total body length is measured from 54 to 102 mm.[2][3] The ventral fur has lighter color than the dorsal fur, which is short and blackish-brown.[4] Pale or white hairs are observed on the ventral surface where wings are connected to flanks, and both white-winged (north-eastern African species) and dark-winged (southern African species) types have been found.[2][3][5][6] This species has round ears that are large for its head size.[4] The small tragus of its ear, which is asymmetrically bilobed at the end, is covered by the large antitragus.[3] A distinguishable forehead tuft is observed in males and it makes their outline recognizable during flight.[4] This species shows great morphological variations in wing and pelage colors resulted in different taxonomic designations depending on its distributional ranges.[7] To illustrate, the little free-tailed bat population found in Amani, Tanzania, has a longer forearm length on average than populations in southern Africa and Ghana and a higher wing loading than populations in South Africa.[8]
Little free-tailed bats occur across southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula, sub-Saharan Africa, and islands of the west Africa and east shores of Africa, such as Sno Tomé, Bioko, Zanzibar, Pemba, the Comoros, the Seychelles, and Madagascar.[4][9][10] Habitats of little free-tailed bats are various from rainforest regions in the south to semiarid areas in the north, which are typically open foraging regions.[5] These bats are found in savannas of Sudan, Guinea, and Zambia, in the Cape Macchia Zone, and more arid countries in the north.[4] Also, they tend to prefer low veld areas in Zimbabwe, but they are never found on the plateau higher than 1,000 meter altitude.[3]
The little free-tailed bat is insectivorous and feeds on a wide range of small insects. Coleoptera (beetles), Hemiptera (true bugs) and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) are major prey for this species.[11] During both summer and winter seasons, they mainly prey on Hemiptera and Lepidoptera, while Diptera (flies) notably contributes to the diet only in the winter and Coleoptera is common only in the summer.[11] However, depending on distributional ranges, types of prey can be varied considerably. For instance, a population found in Amani, Tanzania, mainly feeds on Blattodea (cockroaches) with Hemiptera as the only other order to account for more than 10% of the diet.[8] In South Africa, even though prey is equally available during both dry and rainy seasons, mean size of prey tends to increase in the rainy season.[12]
Little free-tailed bats can fly fast in open areas where they typically inhabit.[4] They have strong, elastic, and leathery flight membrane with high aspect ratio (wing length to width) of long and narrow wings, which are suited for fast and long distance flight but low maneuverability.[4][13] In terms of their low maneuverability, while other African species can pass between two objects that are 11 cm apart, the minimum distance between two objects that little free-tailed bats can fly is 44 cm.[13] Even though its ears are relatively large for its head size, they can lie down on its head to reduce air resistance during flight.[4] As a nocturnal species, little free-tailed bats primarily rely on echolocation to detect their prey and environment.[4] Since higher frequency of echolocation call attenuates with distance faster than low frequency, this species uses low frequency calls with high intensity, which last longer and thus are suitable for prey detection with long-range in open areas.[4][14]
The little free-tailed bat (Chaerephon pumilus) is a species of the genus Chaerephon in the family Molossidae. It is widely distributed across Africa and islands around the continent.
