At first sight, the Chaerephon major may look like any other plain old bat but if you take a closer look you can see some great characteristics that aren’t in other bats. It has way bigger ears than any other bat in its family, so maybe that’s why theirs so many in population than the others bats. It is also a shock because bats are probably the only flying mammals in the world. As you can tell by the picture that this bat has a lot of hair and huge ears, but that’s a great characteristic that you don’t see much in other bats because other bats have fur and are a bit softer and thinner. So now lets take a closer look to see how this animal is very different than its family.

 

To point out the hard differences between other bats, it has a longer body and standard-size wings and with a lot of hair than fur on its body, wings, and head. People can mistake it as a regular bat by its color, which is black and brown, and may be thin but it is quite long. But most free-tailed bats are either black or brown. It has easily adapted to its environment than other bats, since it is only in one country and it lives in small colonies. But it lives like any old bat in any environment that it can adapt to.

 

Now onto its home sweet home, since they only live in the country of Africa. They don’t live in remote areas and are only found in 15 states, which are Benin, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Its natural habitat would be in dry to moist savannas and can be found in small fissures and old buildings and run down houses. They usually live in small colonies and there are possible large populations, its only threat would be habitat loss but other than that it is a least concern. Its range would be in a lowland area in the western part of Africa. But all in all it lives as any other bat.

 

In Africa, these are the most common bats in the area and their population is not shrinking but growing at a slow and steady pace. There are no major threats so these bats have nothing to worry about…except there predators. But, they don’t have to worry about there predators due to their very large ears that extend to great distances and can easily fly away from predators. But if their was a predator it would only be a large animal or bird. When our Lappet-eared friends are hungry they go and be sneaky, with the help of its ears, eyes, and nose it can sense any small animal and devour it fast and quiet. Its role in the food web would be small for it eats small animals but can be eaten by larger animals that are in the way, but that would be unlikely. Even though sometimes the same family may fight with each other for their meal. Look out vampire bites you have competition.

 

So now you know about what there is about the Chaerephon Major or the Lappet-eared Free-tailed Bat. So if you ask me, this animal to me is awesome! Due to its strangeness and great lifestyle it has lived for a long time and will continue to live for a very long time. So after all my hard work I very much think I need a A+ for this assignment. Now this is my favorite mammal.

 

Author: Anmol S.

Date Published: 3/2012

 

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaerephon_major  http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/4314/0 Mickleburgh, S.  Hutson, A.M.  Bergmans, W.  Photo from XDK on http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiskadee/page7/