BAT RESEARCH NEWS

VOLUME 46: No. 4

WINTER 2005

BAT RESEARCH NEWS

VOLUME 46: No. 4

Winter 2005

Table of Contents
The False Vampire Bat, Vampyrum spectrum, in Oaxaca, Mxico
Ana Mara Alfaro, Jos Luis Garca-Garca, and Antonio Santos-Moreno . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Extralimital Record of the Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens) in Indiana
Nicole M. Tuttle, Dale W. Sparks, and Christopher M. Ritzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Abstracts Presented at the 35th Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research
Compiled and edited by Margaret A. Griffiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
List of Participants at the 35th Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research
Compiled by Margaret A. Griffiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Report on the 35th Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research
Margaret A. Griffiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Report on the 10th Anniversary NASBR Teachers Workshop
Patricia Morton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Recent Literature
Compiled by Karry Kazial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Announcements
Compiled by Margaret A. Griffiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Front Cover
The logo of the 35th Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research presents a regional
theme of central California. Illustrated by Fiona Reid, the logo depicts a western mastiff bat,
Eumops perotis, flying before a background of Sutter Buttes. In North America, E. perotis
ranges from central California, southern Arizona and Texas, and western Mexico. One of the
northerly most populations occurs in the Sutter Buttes, a range of remnant volcanoes about 100
km north of Sacramento. Known as the worlds smallest range of mountains, Sutter Buttes acts
as an island of highland habitat in the table-flat farmlands of the Central Valley. It is a
biogeographic relict for many taxa, and as one of the northern-most homes of the largest bat in
North America, it makes a fitting logo for the 35th NASBR, held in Sacramento. Thank you,
Fiona, for once again sharing your work with us.

The False Vampire Bat, Vampyrum spectrum, in Oaxaca, Mxico

Ana Mara Alfaro, Jos Luis Garca-Garca, and Antonio Santos-Moreno
Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigacin para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Instituto
Politcnico Nacional, Unidad Oaxaca, Calle Hornos 1003, Apartado Postal 674, Cdigo Postal
71230, Santa Cruz Xoxocotln, Oaxaca, Mxico
E-mail: asantosm90@hotmail.com
The false vampire bat, Vampyrum spectrum (Phyllostomidae), is the largest bat of the New
World. This species seems restricted to primary tropical forests, open areas, and marshes, from
sea level to 1,650 m (Handley, 1976; Peterson and Kirmse, 1969; Vargas-Espinoza et al., 2004).
The false vampire bat generally is considered rare (Reid, 1997) and is listed as endangered in
Mxico (Ceballos et al., 2002). The known range of this phyllostomid is from Veracruz,
Mxico, southward to Trinidad, central Brazil, and Peru (Koopman, 1993; Navarro and Wilson,
1982; Reid, 1997).
On 4 September 2005, we were collecting pellets of a barn owl (Tyto alba) in a cave at the
locality Ejido Plan de San Luis, in the Municipio Santiago Jocotepec, District of Choapam, in the
state of Oaxaca (174634N 955735.5W). The cave was located at 80 m above sea level in
an area that was dominated by evergreen tropical forest. Pellets apparently had been deposited
over a long period because some pellets were intact whereas others were disintegrating. In
addition, some skeletal material was scattered among the pellets. These unassociated items
probably represented the remnants of pellets that had totally disintegrated over time, leaving no
trace of soft tissues, like hair or feathers, although it is possible that such material may have
arrived in the cave by means of other than an owl.
Among this scattered material, we discovered the skull of a single adult false vampire bat,
as well as the remains of a number of other animals, including the rice rat (Oryzomys sp.), hispid
cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus), and other bats (Artibeus jamaicensis, and Micronycteris sp.).
The skull of the false vampire was complete, other than missing canines, and the sagittal crest
was well developed, suggesting that this large skull came from an old animal. Cranial
measurements (in mm) were: greatest length of skull, 49.3; breadth of braincase, 15.6; least
interorbital breadth, 11; zygomatic breadth, 24; and length of maxillary tooth row, 20.4. This
specimen (AS-M 488) was deposited in the Coleccin de Mamferos of the Centro
Interdisciplinario de Investigacin para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca.
The nearest locality of occurrence for the false vampire bat is the Estacin de Biologa
Tropical Los Tuxtlas, 30 km NE Catemaco, in the state of Veracruz (Navarro, 1979), ca. 114 km
NE of the current locality. The only other previous records of this species in Mxico are from
the states of Chiapas (Lpez et al., 1998) and Campeche (Hernndez-Huerta et al., 2000).
Hence, this is the first record of the false vampire bat in the state of Oaxaca, and it increases the
known mammalian fauna of Oaxaca to 192 species.
Acknowledgments.This work was sponsored in part by the Mexican Consejo Nacional de
Ciencia y Tecnologa and the Coordinacin General de Posgrado e Investigacin, Instituto
Politcnico Nacional de Mxico. E. Martnez-Meyer critically read the manuscript.

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Bat Research News

Volume 46: No. 4

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