Two of our ultrasonic recorders captured calls from a bat that I didn’t recognize and I knew right away that we had a new species. The sonograms indicated that there was a good chance the calls came from a Western Mastiff Bat. I sent the recordings to West Ecosystems Analysis to be vetted, and sure enough my findings were confirmed. We are now up to nine species of bats using the insects from the garden as a food source.
Below, listed in the order of abundance, are the species of bats documented in the garden.
- Hoary bat – Lasiurus cinereus
- Yuma Myotis – Myotis yumanensis
- Canyon bat – Parastrellus Hesperus
- Brazilian free-tailed bat – Tadarida brasiliensis
- Big Brown bat – Eptesicus fuscus
- California myotis – Myotis californicus
- Western red bat – Lasiurus blossevillii
- Southern yellow bat – Lasiurus xanthinus
- Western mastiff bat – Eumops perotis