Damara woolly bat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Damara woolly bat |
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| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Vespertilionidae |
| Genus: | Kerivoula |
| Species: |
K. argentata
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| Binomial name | |
| Kerivoula argentata Tomes, 1861
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The Damara woolly bat (Kerivoula argentata) is a small bat that lives in Africa. It is a nocturnal animal, meaning it is active at night. This bat loves to eat insects! It has reddish-brown fur on its back and white fur on its belly. You can find these bats living in moist savanna areas, woodlands, and even coastal forests. They usually weigh around 10 grams, which is about the same as two quarters!
What They Look Like
The Damara woolly bat has a cool coat of fur! It's usually a mix of rich brown and silvery gray on top, with lighter gray or white fur underneath. Their ears are quite big for their size and have rounded tips. These bats typically weigh between 6 and 9 grams and are about 8 to 10 centimeters long. Their wings can spread out to about 25 centimeters wide. A special feature of this bat is the fringe of hair found on the edge of the skin that stretches between its legs. This hairy edge helps tell them apart from other bats!
How They Find Food
Damara woolly bats use a special skill called echolocation to find their way around and hunt for food in the dark. They send out very quiet, short calls that last only about two milliseconds. These calls have a low frequency, around 90 to 118 kilohertz. Because their calls are so quiet, other animals can't hear them easily. This means the bats can get as close as 3 meters to an insect before the insect might even know they are there!
Where They Live and What They Do
Like some other bats in the Kerivoula family, the Damara woolly bat often uses old nests built by weaverbirds or the scarlet-chested sunbird as their homes. Usually, these bats prefer to roost alone. However, sometimes you can find small groups of up to six bats living together. These bats are found across a large part of Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. They have been seen in many countries, including Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
 | Dorothy Vaughan |
 | Charles Henry Turner |
 | Hildrus Poindexter |
 | Henry Cecil McBay |
