Greater mouse-tailed bat

Greater mouse-tailed bat
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Rhinopomatidae
Genus:	Rhinopoma
Species:	R. microphyllum
Binomial name
Rhinopoma microphyllum (Brünnich, 1792)
File:Greater Mouse-tailed Bat area.png
Greater mouse-tailed bat range

The greater mouse-tailed bat (Rhinopoma microphyllum) is a species of bat in the Rhinopomatidae family. It is found in Algeria, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, the Western Sahara and Yemen. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. They mate at the beginning of spring.

According to a recent research published in Royal Society of London, the specie Rhinopoma microphyllum is found to be hibernating at the unusually warm and constant temperature of 68 °F in caves in Israel's Great Rift Valley. From October to February, these bats were discovered semi-conscious, breathing only once every 15–30 minutes, with extremely low energy expenditures.

References

• Aulagnier, S. 2004. Rhinopoma microphyllum. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 30 July 2007.