Ecology
As America's rarest bat, not much is known about their roosting areas and activities. They have been found in ONLY 10 counties from central to southern Florida.
As America's rarest bat, not much is known about their roosting areas and activities. They have been found in ONLY 10 counties from central to southern Florida.
Bonneted bats are vulnerable due to several factors such as : habitat shrinking due to human encroachment, usage of pesticides on plants on which insects eat and then ingested by bats, diseases, and being displaced by hurricanes.
Roosting & Habitat
Bonneted bats spend most of their day sleeping within cavities of dead palms, rock outcrops, to even manmade structures and artificial bat houses. They wake up around sunset to leave their roost and hunt for the night and have been seen hunting in urban areas such as golf courses, mangroves, and semitropical hardwood forests. From collecting their scat, scientists have been able to determine that they're insectivores and their diet revolves around beetles (Coleoptera), true flies (Diptera), and true bugs (Hemiptera). Bonneted bats are non-migratory which means they need to be in an area that has a consistent supply of food.
