Greater Indian False Vampire Bats Are Artful Assassins at Ellora Caves

Summary: Greater Indian false vampire bats perhaps appear less artfully around the architecturally, artistically amazing Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India.

greater Indian false vampire bat (Megaderma lyra); Tuesday, July 3, 2012, 04:35: Aditya Joshi, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Greater Indian false vampire bats anciently acted as artful assassins of arachnid and insect pests around the architecturally, artistically attractive, 100-plus-cavern, 800 to 1,600-year-old Ellora Caves of Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

Greater Indian false vampire bats belong among the historic, native wildlife in overlapping Ellora Caves rain gardens, Ellora Caves sanctuary gardens and Ellora Caves teak forests. Low birth rates control 2,000-member colonies whose mature males sometimes claim solitary roosts away from extended family networks of three to 30 parents, offspring and relatives. Five-month gestations from November through January matings deliver one or two 0.36-ounce (10.3-gram) pup litters, dependent 20 to 25 days and nursed another 15 to 20.

Physically and sexually mature 15-plus-month-old males and 19-plus-month-old females entertain 1.41 to 2.12-ounce (40 to 60-gram) weights for their tail-less bodies with broad, brown-gray, large wings.

Physical maturity features 2.56 to 3.74-inch (65 to 95-millimeter) body, 2.21 to 2.84-inch (56 to 72-millimeter) forearm and 0.55 to 0.79-inch (14 to 20-millimeter) foot lengths.

Greater Indian false vampire bats generate constant-frequency, multi-harmonic, short-lasting pulses at 106 kHZ through mouths, with triangle-grooved lower lips, in cylindrical muzzles with protruding lower jaws. They have oval, 1.22 to 1.77-inch (31 to 45-millimeter-) long ears, held together basally, and two-lobed ear-canal bumps; and 0.39-inch (10-millimeter-) long nose-leaves between big eyes. Greater Indian false vampire bats, identified scientifically by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (April 15, 1772-June 19, 1844), impart blue hints to brown-gray upper-side and gray-white under-side fur.

Greater Indian false vampire bats journey, through 1.64 to 6.56-foot (0.5 to 2-meter-) high flights, after prey and from civets, genets, mongooses, people, raptors and snakes.

The Megadermatidae (from Greek μέγας, "great," δέρμα, "skin" and -ειδής, "-like") false vampire bat family member kills fishes, frogs, insects, lizards, mice, rats, spiders and toads.

Greater Indian false vampire bats, labeled scientifically Megaderma lyra (from Greek μέγας, "great," δέρμα, "skin" and λύρα, "lyre"), leave one hour after sunset to locate prey. They maintain daytime and night-time roosts in attics, barns, caves, mines, pits, silos, temples, trees and tunnels in forests and shrublands and on cliffs and peaks. Greater Indian false vampire bats historically nestle into Maharashtra habitat niches in Ajanta and Ellora, Aurangabad district; and Bandra, Kanheri and Powai lake, Mumbai Suburban district.

Greater Indian false vampire bats historically occur in Maharashtra in Bhor Rajewadi and Satara, Satara district; Chinchpali, Chandrapur district; Ghodasgaon, Dhule district; and Gorthan, Nashik district.

Greater Indian false vampire bats historically populate Haveli, Junnar, Mulshi, Panshet and Pune, Pune district; Khed, Ramane Wadi and Ratnagiri, Ratnagiri district; and Mahad, Raigad district.

Research studies, 2004-2011, queue up Baramati, Daund and Indapur, Pune district; Bhalwani-Mangalvedha, Bhalwani-Pandharpur, Kurbavi-Malshiras, Piliv-Sangola and Pothare-Karmala, Solapur district; Osmanabad Caves, Osmanabad; and Supe, Ahmednagar district. They require annual average temperatures around 79.16 degrees Fahrenheit (26.2 degrees Celsius) and average monthly 4.44-inch (112.7-millimeter) rainfall up through 3,280.84-foot (1,000-meter) altitudes above sea level. Habitat-tolerant, sustainable populations inside and outside protected areas suggest a least-concern status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature for greater Indian false vampire bats.

Tourist traffic ironically tends to turn greater Indian false vampire bats away from their traditional tasks as natural terminators of invertebrates pests sometimes troubling Ellora Caves.

Ellora Caves in Aurangabad District, Maharashtra, western peninsular India; Monday, July 28, 2014, 14:38: Akshatha Inamdar, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

greater Indian false vampire bat (Megaderma lyra); July 3, 2012; Tuesday, July 3, 2012, 04:35: Aditya Joshi, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_False_Vampire_Bat_(Megaderma_lyra).jpg

Ellora Caves in Aurangabad District, Maharashtra, western peninsular India; Monday, July 28, 2014, 14:38: Akshatha Inamdar, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_Caves-Maharashtra_t-146.jpg

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