South-eastern Long-eared Bat
Description
As the name suggests, this relatively large, solid bat has long ears and can be distinguished from other forms of the Greater Long-eared Bat based on distribution.
South-eastern Long-eared Bats emit calls out to the environment and listens to the echoes of these calls that return from various objects to locate, range,and identify the objects. This is called echolocation and it is used for navigation and foraging. The echolocation calls of this species can not be distinguished from other long-eared bat species within the region, therefore all surveys for this species need to be undertaken using trapping techniques rather than bat detectors.
Features that distinguish it from other long-eared bats in the region are a proportionally larger head, wider snout, more thickset body and an outer canine width greater than 5.6mm.
Habitat
The South-eastern Long-eared Bat is largely restricted to the Murray Darling Basin where it is patchily distributed and occurs in a range of inland woodland vegetation types, including box ironbark, cypress pine, Buloke, Belah, River Red Gum, Black Box woodlands, and various types of mallee vegetation. It has been found to occur 10 times more abundantly in extensive stands of vegetation, compared to small forest remnants. Specifically, preference is shown in areas surrounded by large amounts of woody vegetation (within 10km), warmer areas within the region over winter and highly drained, lower fertility soils. The bats prefer large hollows as roosting sites, demonstrating the need for old-growth vegetation to be protected.
Ecology
South-eastern Long-eared Bats tend to prefer to roost in tree hollows, or in dense foliage, with a single individual roosting in each. Roosts tend to range from 1.5m to 2.9m above the ground. While foraging, this bat has a manoeuvrable flight pattern, often flying close to vegetation including weaving its way through the canopy and swooping after insects almost to ground level. The South-eastern Long-eared Bat moves large distances nocturnally, with individual bats using multiple roost sites, often for just a single day
The South-eastern Long-eared Bat is listed as vulnerable
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