Hello Graham,
I'm assuming that Russell will tell us if he'd prefer we didn't discuss bats
that roost in bird nests on b-aus. I'm hoping it is of interest to some
subscribers and therefore acceptable.
My information on bats roosting in abandoned Yellow-throated
Scrub-wren nests was from Les Hall, a scientist at the University of
Queensland. In my old age I don't now remember the contact, and it's so
long ago that I surmise that he would have retired by now.
All I have is my hand-written note which I put in the "Bats" section of my
copy of the "Complete Book of Australian Mammals" (edited by Ronald Strahan,
Aus. Museum). The note reads:
Eptesicus
Chalinolobus morio
Bats in Devil-bird nests
Les Hall 377 3933
(So the information predates the time when we changed from 7-digit to
8-digit phone numbers.)
The book gives "Chocolate Wattle Bat" as the common name for C. morio.
The book includes five species of Eptesicus, but only one, the Little Cave
Eptesicus (E. pumilus) has a distribution that includes south-east
Queensland. So that must surely be the one to use old Yellow-throated
Scrub-wren nests.
"Eptesicus" is used for the vernacular names for the several species. The
book lists as "Other Common Names", Little Bat, Little Brown Bat, and Common
Little Bat" for E. morio. None of them in anyway distinctive, so
Eptesicus does seem preferable. (Some other species in the genus also get
called "Little Bat").
Recent synonyms are given as Eptesicus darlingtoni and Scotophilus pumilus.
My 1946 copy of Troughton's "Furred Animals of Australia" does not include
either of those genera, so I assume Eptesicus has been described as a new
genus since then.
Now as to your advice of Golden-tipped Bats: It seems that the Y-t S-wren
is found up most of eastern Australia. So whereabouts for your
Golden-tipped Bats? I note that my (1983) Museum book says of Phoniscus
papuensis:
"Until its capture in the Cairns hinterland in September 1981, there
were reasonable grounds for believing that the Golden-tipped Bat was extinct
in Australia. Since then it has been trapped in several other areas of
coastal forest, the southern-most being in New South Wales close to the
Victorian border."
So it's likely that you will be giving me a location not included in my
reference books. TIA.
Cheers
Syd
> From: "Graham Turner" <>
> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:27:41 +1000
> To: "Syd Curtis" <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] ID a bird?
>
> Giday Sid, that's quite a remarkable bit of info re the scrub wren, but what
> really got me was the reference to 2 bat species using the nests. I knew
> that golden tipped bats roosted in scrub wren nests, but I thought they were
> the only ones. Do you know what they other bats are???
>
> Cheers
> Graham Turner
>
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