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Nycteris hispida

Order: Chiroptera > Family: Nycteridae > Genus: Nycteris > Species: Nycteris hispida

Common Name: Hairy Slit-faced Bat [English]

Type Description

Die Saugethiere, 1:169, 188.

Type Locality

Senegal.

Measurements

Total length: 93-104 mm
Head and body: 32-50 mm
Tail length: 64-74 mm
Hindfoot length: 15-16 mm
Ear length: 17-25 mm
Forearm Length: 36-45 mm
Weight: 6-10 g

Description

Look for very long ears, a longitudinal slit on the muzzle and a "Y" shaped tip to the tail.

Distribution

Very common and widely distributed throughout Africa except for open desert, Nycteris hispida prefers to forge at low levels in areas that are dry open country to moist vegetation types like dense undergrowth, reeds, thickets, mangroves, woodlands, marsh and papyrus swamps. (Kingdon, 1984, 1997)

Key References

1. Kingdon, J. 1984. East African mammals: An atlas of evolution in Africa. (Insectivores and Bats). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2A:189, 220-227.
2. Kingdon, J. 1997. The Kingdon field guide to African mammals, AP Natural World Academic Press, Harcourt Brace & Company, San Diego, p. 124.
3. Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World. Sixth ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1:322-323.
4. Simmons, N.B. 2005. Order Chiroptera, pp. 312-529. In Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder, eds., Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, 3rd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
5. Swynnerton, G. H., and R. W. Hayman. 1951. A checklist of the land mammals of the Tanganyika Territory and the Zanzibar Protectorate. Journal of the East African Natural History Society, 20(6):274-392.