The World’s Rarest Bat Is Discovered Living on a Golf Course in Miami

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/09/09/worlds-rarest-bat-discovered-living-miami?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-09-09


A group of citizen scientists is fanning out across the city to save the Florida bonneted bat.

September 09, 2014 By Todd Woody

Todd Woody is TakePart's senior editor for environment and wildlife.

If you were one of the world’s rarest and most endangered bats, where would you choose to live? Perhaps in a remote forest or woodland?

Nah, if you’re a Florida bonneted bat, you’re going to Miami. And just like thousands of snowbirds that flock to the city on Biscayne Bay, you like to hang out at the golf course.

Only an estimated 500 of the bonneted bats are left—no one knows for sure how many—and they are scattered around six South Florida counties. The small and high-flying bats have long eluded biologists' attempts to capture them or even discover where they roost. Then one evening recently, Kirsten Bohn, a Florida International University bat biologist, was standing on her balcony in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables when she heard the distinctive call of Eumops floridanus. She used a high-speed recorder to capture the sound and make a positive identification of the species.

It’s not the first time the bats have come to the big city. An injured and pregnant bat, for instance, was found in Coral Gables in 1988, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which listed the Florida bonneted bat as endangered last year.

FULL story at link.