Schneider's Leaf-Nosed Bats Are Artful Annihilators at Ellora Caves

Summary: Schneider's leaf-nosed bats maybe avert insect pests less artfully around the architecturally, artistically astounding Ellora Caves of Maharashtra, India.

Schneider's leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros speoris); temple in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, southeastern India; Monday, July 16, 2012, 18:38: Seshadri.K.S, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Schneider's leaf-nosed bats anciently, artfully assisted greater Indian false vampire bats in assuring low levels of insect pests around the architecturally, artistically astounding, 100-plus-cavern, fifth to thirteenth-century Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India.

Schneider's leaf-nosed bats, with low birth rates, historically never besiege Ellora Caves rain gardens, Ellora Caves sanctuary gardens and Ellora Caves teak forests with brimming colonies. Physically and sexually mature, 0.32 to 0.42-ounce (9 to 12-gram) parents care for their one-pup litters born 135 to 140 days after their yearly mating sessions. They display 1.18 to 1.34-inch (30 to 34-millimeter) wingspans and 1.77 to 2.44-inch (45 to 62-millimeter) body and 0.79 to 1.14-inch (20 to 29-millimeter) tail lengths.

Schneider's bats exhibit 0.49 to 0.75-inch (12.5 to 19-millimeter) ear, 1.79 to 2.13-inch (45.6 to 54-millimeter) forearm and 0.28 to 0.43-inch (7 to 11-millimeter) foot lengths.

Schneider's leaf-nosed bats feature large, triangle-shaped, wide ears concave just below rear-edge tips; nose-leaves with six side-running leaflets and with widely divided nostrils; and long tails.

Schneider's leaf-nosed bats, grouped commonly also as Schneider's round-leaf bats, get white-based brown-gray to orange fur lighter on upper-sides than on undersides and sometimes all-gray bodies. The Hipposideridae (from Greek ίππος, "horse," σίδηρος, "steel" and -ειδής, "-like") Old World leaf-nosed bat family member has the highest-pitched echolocation calls after horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae). Schneider's leaf-nosed bats, identified scientifically by Johann Schneider (Jan. 18, 1750-Jan. 12, 1822), initiates insect-catching, low-flying, slow-moving, nightly hunts from communal roosts 10 minutes after sunset.

Maharashtra joins fellow states Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh and Sri Lanka as historic homelands for Schneider's leaf-nosed bats.

Alibag and Matheran, Raigad district; and Asgani, Ratnagir district, historically keep Schneider's leaf-nosed bats, known scientifically as Hipposideros speoris (from Greek ίππος, "horse" and σίδηρος, "steel").

Bhor, Chatushrungi cave, Mawal, Pune, Ranjangaon, Saswad, Shivneri Fort and Shirur, Pune district; and Borivali, Elephanta and Kanheri, Mumbai Suburban district historically lodge Schneider's leaf-nosed bats. Chanda, Chandrapur district; Ellora, Aurangabad district; Nanded, Nanded district; Saralgaon, Thane district; and Satara, Satara district just as historically mingle them with other native Maharashtra wildlife. Research surveys in 2004, 2008 and 2011 nestle them nowadays into habitat niches in Bhalavani, Sangli district; and Bhimanagar, Karmala, Kurduvadi, Pandharpur and Pothare, Solapur district.

Schneider's leaf-nosed bats likewise occurres in Indapur and Nira Narsingpur, Pune district during a seven-year study area in the Deccan (from Hindi दक्खिन, "south, southern") region.

The 23.63-inch (600-millimeter) annual precipitation and the 1,968.5-foot (600-meter), open, scrubby, semi-arid, thorn-forested altitude above sea level presently please Schneider's leaf-nosed bats in Osmanabad district caves.

Schneider's leaf-nosed bats queue up in subtropical and tropical dry forests and plains; on wooded slopes; and throughout old buildings, caves, forts, palaces, temples and tunnels. Their ranges through 4,543.96-foot (1,385-meter) altitudes above sea level require annual average temperatures around 79.16 degrees Fahrenheit (26.2 degrees Celsius) and annual average 4.44-inch (112.7-millimeter) rainfall. Sufficient, sustainable populations that show survivalistic tolerances of habitat changes suggest an International Union for Conservation of Nature status of least concern for Schneider's leaf-nosed bats.

Twenty-first-century technologists tend toward chemical and mechanical terminations despite similar aftereffects that turn them off to such natural annihilators as Schneider's leaf-nosed bats: residue versus droppings.

Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, 18:29: sudhakarsingh bondili, 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:

Schneider's leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros speoris); temple in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, southeastern India; Monday, July 16, 2012, 18:38: Seshadri.K.S, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schneider's_Leaf-nosed_Bat_Hipposideros_speoris_DSC_9833_copy_filtered_copy.jpg

Ellora Caves, Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, 18:29: sudhakarsingh bondili, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FO2A7696-1.jpg

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