Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Rafinesque's big-eared bats Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii are en­demic to North Amer­ica and are found through­out most of the south-cen­tral and south­east­ern United States. Their range ex­tends no fur­ther north than 40.9 de­grees north in Illi­nois, In­di­ana, and Ohio. In the east, its range ex­tends to 37.0 de­grees north is found no fur­ther north than south­ern Vir­ginia. The range ex­tends east­ward to the At­lantic coast and west­ward to south­east­ern Texas just east of Dal­las, at about 96.6 de­grees west. There are two sub­species of the Rafinesque's big-eared bat, Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii rafinesquii and Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii macro­tis. Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii rafinesquii is mainly found in the north­ern and west­ern reaches of the range, whereas Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii macro­tis is found in the south­east­ern states. (Ar­royo-Cabrales and Al­varez-Castañeda, 2008; Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; O'Shea, et al., 2003)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

The habi­tat re­quire­ments of Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii are de­pen­dent on the avail­abil­ity of for­ag­ing habi­tat and roost habi­tat. For­ag­ing habi­tat in­cludes ma­ture bot­tom­land hard­woods, young pine Pinus stands, oak-hick­ory (Quer­cus-Carya) forests, open field edges, and ri­par­ian habi­tats such as swamps and stream edges. For­ag­ing habi­tats must con­tain a high di­ver­sity of woody plants in order to sat­isfy the needs of their lep­i­dopteran prey. The sub­species Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii rafinesquii is found in the north­ern re­gion of the range and com­monly for­ages in ma­ture hard­wood habi­tats along ridge­lines and cor­ri­dors. The sub­species Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii macro­tis in­hab­its more Coastal Plain for­ag­ing habi­tats, fo­cus­ing on up­land pine stands. This sub­species will also se­lec­tively for­age in ma­ture oak and hick­ory forests. For un­known rea­sons, yel­low polar (Liri­o­den­dron tulip­ifera), Amer­i­can beech (Fagus gran­di­fo­lia), and maple (Acer) stands are avoided by both sub­species when for­ag­ing. The roost habi­tat of the Rafinesque’s big-eared bat can be fur­ther bro­ken into three cat­e­gories: hi­ber­nat­ing roosts, day roosts, and ma­ter­nity roosts. Roost habi­tats mainly con­sist of caves, dead or de­cay­ing trees, and human struc­tures such as barns, houses, cul­verts, mine shafts, and bridges. All types of roosts are de­pen­dent upon tem­per­a­ture sta­bil­ity. Most human struc­tures oc­cu­pied by Rafinesque’s big-eared bats are aban­doned due to a high sen­si­tiv­ity to human dis­tur­bance. A roost tem­per­a­ture of 10 to 15 de­grees Cel­sius is re­quired year-round. Ma­ter­nity roosts are used from late April to mid-July and are used for rear­ing pups. Re­pro­duc­tively ac­tive fe­males and their young only oc­cupy these roosts. Ma­ter­nity roosts can con­sist of caves, snags, or human struc­tures. Day roosts of fe­male Rafinesque’s big-eared bats are used through­out early spring and early fall (March-April and Au­gust-Oc­to­ber). For males, day roosts are used con­sis­tently through­out March-Oc­to­ber. Day roosts are nor­mally com­prised of snags, under tree bark, in barns, under bridges, in mine shafts, in cul­verts, and oc­ca­sion­ally in caves. Hi­ber­nat­ing roosts, or hi­ber­nac­ula, are used through­out the cold win­ter months (ap­prox­i­mately No­vem­ber to Feb­ru­ary). Ideal hi­ber­nac­ula for Rafinesque’s big-eared bat are caves or mine shafts that main­tain a con­stant tem­per­a­ture of about 11 de­grees Cel­sius. In the south­ern por­tion of the range, hi­ber­nac­ula have in­cluded human struc­tures as well as snags. Roost choice is de­pen­dent upon prox­im­ity to a water source as well as for­ag­ing habi­tat. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats are not known to travel much fur­ther than 2.5 km from the roost site. Stud­ies have shown that they demon­strate roost fi­delity from year-to-year for all types of roost habi­tat. (Ar­royo-Cabrales and Al­varez-Castañeda, 2008; Carver and Ash­ley, 2008; Hurst and Lacki, 1997; Hurst and Lacki, 1999; John­son and Lacki, 2013; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Men­zel, et al., 2001; O'Shea, et al., 2003; Trous­dale and Beck­ett, 2004)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• mountains

• Wetlands
• marsh
• swamp
• bog

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural
• riparian
• caves

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii has rel­a­tively flat, dull fur and is brown­ish-gray in color, some­times with a red­dish hue on the dor­sal side. The ven­tral fur is much lighter, with fur that is dark at the base and light at the tip. This bat is about 10.5 cm in total snout-vent length. The toe hairs ex­tend no­tice­ably be­yond the toe. This bat is known for its large ears, which are about 3 cm long in adults. A long, pointed tra­gus is pre­sent in the inner ear that is roughly two-thirds the total ear length. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats have the abil­ity to curl their ears back, which make the ear re­sem­ble ram's horns.

There is no dif­fer­ence in ap­pear­ance be­tween the two sub­species of Rafinesque’s big-eared bat. An ad­di­tional cusp is pre­sent on the upper in­cisor of Rafinesque's big-eared bat that is not seen in other species in the genus Corynorhi­nus. The den­tal for­mula is: 4/6 2/2 4/6 6/6.

Adults can weigh from 7 to 13 grams and demon­strate sex­ual di­mor­phism. Fe­males are nor­mally about one gram larger than adult males. New­born pups are born naked, with­out fur and weigh be­tween two to three grams. Neonates will re­sem­ble adults in ap­pear­ance within three weeks of birth.

Large, pro­trud­ing pararhi­nal glands are pre­sent on the upper side of the snout with ex­tended nos­tril open­ings. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats have a wingspan of ap­prox­i­mately 25 to 30 cm. Fore­arm length is be­tween 38 and 45 mm in adults.

Rafinesque’s big-eared bats closely re­sem­ble Townsend’s big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus townsendii) but are dis­tin­guish­able by sev­eral key char­ac­ter­is­tics. The main dif­fer­ence be­tween the two is the pres­ence of the ad­di­tional cusp on the upper in­cisor of the Rafinesque’s big-eared bat. There is also a slight dif­fer­ence in fur color be­tween the two species. Townsend’s big-eared bats tend to have rel­a­tively lighter dor­sal coat and less vari­a­tion in ven­tral fur color than Rafinesque’s big-eared bats. (Ar­royo-Cabrales and Al­varez-Castañeda, 2008; Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Men­zel, et al., 2002; O'Shea, et al., 2003)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  7 to 13 g

  0.25 to 0.46 oz

• Average mass

  8.1 g

  0.29 oz

• Average length

  10.5 cm

  4.13 in

• Range wingspan

  25 to 30 cm

  9.84 to 11.81 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii mates from late Oc­to­ber to late No­vem­ber, be­fore hi­ber­nat­ing. Mat­ing oc­curs dur­ing fall swarms in which males and fe­males gather out­side of cave en­trances and com­mence mat­ing. Fe­male Rafinesque's big-eared bats are polyg­y­nan­drous and delay fer­til­iza­tion until after hi­ber­na­tion. Exact length of ges­ta­tion is un­known. Not much has been pub­lished on the mat­ing sys­tems of Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii. Only hy­pothe­ses about the sys­tems have been re­ported in the lit­er­a­ture. For ex­am­ple, Clark (1990; cited in Lacki and Bay­less 2013) sug­gested that this species has a polyg­y­nous mat­ing sys­tem. Dur­ing the months of fall swarm, she hy­poth­e­sized that males de­fend a ter­ri­tory and en­cour­age mul­ti­ple non-ter­ri­to­r­ial fe­males to mate with them. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats are be­lieved to be­come re­pro­duc­tively ac­tive after one year, but lit­tle data are avail­able on re­pro­duc­tive de­vel­op­ment. The re­pro­duc­tive sta­tus of male Rafinesque’s big-eared bats is dis­tin­guish­able by the pres­ence of swollen tes­ti­cles. (Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki, et al., 2007)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Rafinesque’s big-eared bats use in­ter­nal fer­til­iza­tion. Fe­males form ma­ter­nity colonies dur­ing late May and early June. Dur­ing this time fe­males give birth to a sin­gle naked pup, usu­ally weigh­ing 2.3 to 2.6 grams. Fe­males give birth to neonates while roosted in an up­right po­si­tion, drop­ping the new­born pups into the mem­brane be­tween their hind limbs known as the uropatag­ium. These bats are thought to be able to dis­tin­guish their young by chemore­cep­tion of unique odors pro­duced by new­born pups. Off­spring gen­er­ally have darker pelage within the first three weeks of life that molts into adult pelage within eight weeks in south­ern parts of their range, and 10 to 12 weeks in the north­ern parts of their range. Within 4 to 5 weeks after birth, these bats re­sem­ble adults in size. On av­er­age, Rafinesque’s big-eared bats be­come sex­u­ally ac­tive around one year of age. (John­son and Lacki, 2013; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki, et al., 2007)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous
• sperm-storing
• delayed fertilization

• Breeding interval

  Rafinesque's big-eared bats will mate multiple times during the late summer and early fall.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season is from September through October.

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Range weaning age

  3 to 4 weeks

• Range time to independence

  5 to 6 weeks

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

Rafinesque’s big-eared bat young are al­tri­cial. These pups are de­pen­dent upon ma­ter­nal care for three to four weeks dur­ing which time they rely on nu­tri­tion from their mother’s milk. Upon the loss of milk teeth, around four weeks of age, these bats gain per­ma­nent den­ti­tion and forgo suck­ling. Young Rafinesque’s big-eared bats begin prac­tic­ing flight within three weeks of birth and be­come com­pe­tent in flight around five weeks. Of­ten­times, bat cap­tures in late July and early Au­gust occur in pairs of moth­ers and ju­ve­niles. Such ob­ser­va­tions have led to spec­u­la­tion that there may be a teach­ing pe­riod in which moth­ers for­age with their young in order to demon­strate proper for­ag­ing tech­niques. (Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki, et al., 2007)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• female parental care
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii has a lifes­pan that de­pends on sev­eral fac­tors, in­clud­ing so­cial be­hav­iors, roost se­lec­tion, and ge­o­graphic lo­ca­tion. The longest recorded lifes­pan was of a fe­male cap­tured in West Vir­ginia that was ten years and one month old (Par­adiso and Green­hall, 1967). Lit­tle data are avail­able on the lifes­pan of this bat in the wild. Most bats can only be tracked via band re­cov­er­ies, and Lacki (2013) ac­knowl­edges that most banded in­di­vid­u­als aren’t re­cap­tured after three years. There are spec­u­la­tions that banded in­di­vid­u­als may avoid re­cap­ture by re­lo­cat­ing, or be­com­ing savvy to avoid nets. There are no sci­en­tific sources re­ported on cap­tiv­ity of this bat, al­though sim­i­lar species (e.g., Corynorhi­nus townsendii vir­gini­anus, Vir­ginia big-eared bats) per­ish at an ac­cel­er­ated rate in cap­tiv­ity. In 2010 the Na­tional Zoo took forty Vir­ginia big-eared into cap­tiv­ity for en­sured preser­va­tion of the sub­species, within four months only eleven bats re­mained. The zoo found that the most sub­stan­tial chal­lenge with keep­ing these bats in cap­tiv­ity was to stim­u­late feed­ing be­hav­iors within a con­fined area. (Cock­rum, 1956; Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; O'Shea, et al., 2003)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  10 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Sea­sonal be­hav­iors of Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii can be bro­ken into three cat­e­gories, fall swarm­ing and mat­ing, ma­ter­nity colony for­ma­tions and pup rear­ing, and hi­ber­na­tion. Mixed sex roosts are oc­cu­pied through­out the early spring (March through April), and fall-win­ter months (Au­gust through Feb­ru­ary). Both sexes oc­cupy day roosts as well as hi­ber­nac­ula to­gether. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats clus­ter to­gether when roost­ing and can vary in num­ber of in­di­vid­u­als from 2 to 100, while some re­main soli­tary. It is hy­poth­e­sized that clus­ter size is in­versely re­lated to roost tem­per­a­ture. While roost­ing, Rafinesque’s big-eared bats hang up­side down with the ven­tral side rest­ing along a sub­strate. These bats demon­strate groom­ing be­hav­iors while roost­ing, which is be­lieved to strengthen so­cial bonds amongst con­specifics. There is no pref­er­ence in roost choice be­tween sexes. Dur­ing the sum­mer months (May to Au­gust), re­pro­duc­tively-ac­tive fe­males gather in ma­ter­nity colonies and care for their off­spring. Roost fi­delity is often seen in ma­ter­nity roosts and these will be used for mul­ti­ple sea­sons, up­wards of 5 to 10 years, de­pend­ing on struc­tural in­tegrity of the roost. Ma­ter­nity roosts can con­sist of sev­eral roost lo­ca­tions in­clud­ing roosts in dead trees, under bridges, and in aban­doned human struc­tures. Ma­ter­nity roost struc­ture is gen­er­ally com­prised of a main home roost with sev­eral other satel­lite roosts, de­pend­ing on habi­tat qual­ity and roost avail­abil­ity. Fe­males fly with the young cling­ing to their ven­tral side in order to re­lo­cate to dif­fer­ent roosts. This be­hav­ior does not occur dur­ing for­ag­ing. Males and non-re­pro­duc­tive fe­males con­tinue to use day roosts through­out the sum­mer months. Dur­ing the fall months (Sep­tem­ber to Oc­to­ber), Rafinesque’s big-eared bats gather in fall swarms and begin to mate. These swarms usu­ally occur out­side of cave en­trances where mixed sex roosts are lo­cated. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats usu­ally do not share roosts with other bat species. How­ever, in the north­ern parts of the range these bats may oc­ca­sion­ally roost with tri-col­ored bats (Per­imy­otis sub­flavus) and Vir­ginia big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus townsendii vir­gini­anus). Rafinesque’s big-eared bats hi­ber­nate for as long as three to four months in the win­ter (No­vem­ber to Feb­ru­ary) to en­dure cold tem­per­a­tures. Length of hi­ber­na­tion can vary de­pend­ing on lo­ca­tion and sever­ity of weather from year to year. In the north­ern por­tions of their range, Rafinesque’s big-eared bats may un­dergo a state of tor­por dur­ing sum­mer months. These bats have the abil­ity to ini­ti­ate im­me­di­ate flight from a sta­tion­ary po­si­tion if aroused. Al­though while hi­ber­nat­ing it may take sev­eral min­utes for bats to ini­ti­ate flight if aroused.

Rafinesque’s big-eared bats usu­ally leave the roost well after dark and re­turn in the early morn­ing be­fore twi­light hours. They are ver­sa­tile fly­ers and are able to travel through clut­tered cor­ri­dors as well as hover in order to cap­ture sta­tion­ary prey. (Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki, et al., 2007; Men­zel, et al., 2001)

• Key Behaviors
• troglophilic
• flies
• nocturnal
• motile
• hibernation
• daily torpor
• social
• colonial

• Range territory size

  0.616 to 2.253 km^2

• Average territory size

  1.606 km^2

Home Range

Home range varies de­pend­ing on lo­ca­tion and habi­tat qual­ity al­though Men­zel et al. (2001) re­ported the av­er­age home range of 5 male Rafinesque’s big-eared bats in South Car­olina was 93.1 ha (range 61.6 to 225.3 ha). Lit­tle lit­er­a­ture is avail­able for the size of the home range in fe­males; it is spec­u­lated that it is smaller than males and more vari­able with the sea­son. There are lit­tle data avail­able on ter­ri­tory main­te­nance of these bats and there is likely over­lap be­tween in­di­vid­ual ter­ri­to­ries. (Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki, et al., 2007; Men­zel, et al., 2001)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Rafinesque's big-eared bats use a low fre­quency call dur­ing echolo­ca­tion, com­pared to many bat species in the genus My­otis. All calls are less than ten mil­lisec­onds in length and can be de­scribed as a fre­quency-mod­u­lated sweep. The range of the call dur­ing the sweep usu­ally be­gins at about 40 kHz and ends around 20 kHz. The na­ture of the low fre­quency call makes it dif­fi­cult to record on acoustic de­tec­tors and is be­lieved to aid in the lo­ca­tion of sta­tion­ary prey. While in flight, this bat con­tin­u­ously has its mouth open in order to pro­duce echolo­ca­tion calls. Con­trary to pop­u­lar be­lief, this bat also uses its eye­sight while in flight in order to avoid ob­struc­tions. The elon­gated nos­trils of Rafinesque's big-eared bats are said to aid the pro­duc­tion of ul­tra­sonic sounds, which is thought to help in­di­vid­u­als main­tain spa­tial dis­tri­b­u­tion dur­ing for­ag­ing. Their large ears also aid in what is known as pas­sive lis­ten­ing in order to lo­cate sta­tion­ary prey. Rafinesque's big-eared bats also have the abil­ity to pro­duce so­cial calls. Al­though not much in­for­ma­tion is avail­able on the di­ver­sity of so­cial calls for this species, it is thought that sev­eral types of so­cial calls are used, in­clud­ing alarm calls, mat­ing calls, and ter­ri­to­r­ial calls. Chem­i­cal sig­nals and tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion are also sus­pected to aid in off­spring recog­ni­tion and roost lo­ca­tion. There is no known dif­fer­ence in com­mu­ni­ca­tion and per­cep­tion be­tween sub­species. (Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Loeb and Britzke, 2010)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• ultrasound
• echolocation
• chemical

Food Habits

Rafinesque's big-eared bats are ver­sa­tile fly­ers and are able to cap­ture prey by glean­ing as well as aer­ial hawk­ing. The abil­ity to hover and pas­sively lis­ten al­lows them to be es­pe­cially suc­cess­ful in the cap­ture of sta­tion­ary prey species. Rafinesque's big-eared bats for­age about one meter off the ground in lo­ca­tions with plenty of ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal sur­face that is nec­es­sary for glean­ing. The av­er­age area of for­ag­ing habi­tat for Rafinesque's big-eared bats is 137.4 hectares and may be oc­cu­pied by sev­eral in­di­vid­u­als. Con­specifics are able to main­tain a con­stant spa­tial dis­tri­b­u­tion dur­ing for­ag­ing by pick­ing up one an­other’s echolo­ca­tion calls and avoid­ing over­lap. Rafinesque's big-eared bats use feed­ing perches, where they con­sume prey that they have caught. A late flyer, they usu­ally leave the roost to for­age sev­eral hours after dark. Males may demon­strate bipha­sic for­ag­ing pat­terns using two dif­fer­ent for­ag­ing trips a night. The first being from about an hour after dark until mid­night and the sec­ond be­gin­ning around four in the morn­ing until just be­fore sun­rise.

The areas used for for­ag­ing can dif­fer in in­di­vid­u­als based on time of year, sex, and re­pro­duc­tive con­di­tion. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats are for­est habi­tat gen­er­al­ists and tar­get areas along for­est edges, along cliff walls, and in ri­par­ian cor­ri­dors.

Rafinesque's big-eared bats are Lep­i­dopteran spe­cial­ists. Stud­ies have shown that more than 80% of the diet con­sists of var­i­ous lep­i­dopteran species in­clud­ing six fam­i­lies of moths and 22 species. Wingspan of lep­i­dopteran prey is a lim­it­ing fac­tor. The av­er­age wingspan of lep­i­dopteran prey is be­tween 47 and 70 mil­lime­ters. The fam­ily Noc­tu­idae makes up the bulk of the diet at about 39 per­cent. The five other main fam­i­lies in­clude Arc­tu­idae, Geometri­dae, Mega­lopy­gi­dae, Notodon­ti­dae, and S<ph­ingi­dae>. Stud­ies have shown that Rafinesque's big-eared bats also for­age on bee­tles (Coleoptera), ci­cadas (Hemiptera), flies (Diptera), true bugs (Hemiptera), bees and ants (Hy­menoptera), and cad­dis flies (Tri­choptera). There is no ev­i­dence of dif­fer­ence in food habits be­tween sub­species. (Gre­gory, et al., 2014; Hurst and Lacki, 1997; John­son and Lacki, 2013; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki and Ladeur, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Due to the noc­tur­nal na­ture and ver­sa­tile fly­ing abil­i­ties of Rafinesque’s big-eared bats, there are few known preda­tors that are suc­cess­ful at cap­tur­ing these bats while in flight, most pre­da­tion oc­curs while bats are roosted. Bats that choose less cryp­tic roost lo­ca­tions such as aban­doned build­ings tend to be more sus­cep­ti­ble to pre­da­tion. There are few re­ported cases of ob­served pre­da­tion of these bats how­ever black rat snakes (Pan­therophis al­leghanien­sis), rac­coons (Pro­cyon lotor), Vir­ginia opos­sums (Didel­phis vir­gini­ana), and house cats (Felis catus) are known preda­tors of this species. In some cases young Rafinesque’s big-eared bats may be­come dis­lodged from their roosts and fall to the ground leav­ing them vul­ner­a­ble to preda­tors, in­clud­ing snakes and ter­res­trial preda­tors. (Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • black rat snakes (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)
  • raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • opossums (Didelphis virginiana)
  • house cats (Felis catus)

Ecosys­tem Roles

This bat is a lep­i­dopteran spe­cial­ist and sig­nif­i­cantly con­trols in­sect pop­u­la­tions through­out its range. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats host both ec­topar­a­sites and en­dopar­a­sites. A study by McAl­lis­ter et al. (2005) re­ported a va­ri­ety of gas­troin­testi­nal helminths pre­sent in 10% of the ob­served bats in Arkansas. The three main par­a­sites recorded in this study in­clude one par­a­site in the class Ces­toda (Vam­pirolepis) and two par­a­sites from the phy­lum Ne­ma­toda (Physa­loptera and Cap­il­laria palmata). These spe­cific par­a­sites are com­mon to occur in the stom­ach, small in­tes­tine, and feces of the Rafinesque’s big-eared bat. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats host a va­ri­ety of ec­topar­a­sites that may be pre­sent on ex­posed patag­ium as well as in the pelage. Lit­tle data are avail­able on the mul­ti­tude of ex­ter­nal par­a­sites of this bat al­though sev­eral species of mites, fleas, flies, and ticks are be­lieved in in­fect this bat. (Boyles, et al., 2011; Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Klug, et al., 2011; McAl­lis­ter, et al., 2005; McAl­lis­ter, et al., 2004)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Like most North Amer­i­can bat species, Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii is an in­sec­tiv­o­rous bat that po­ten­tially plays a role in pest con­trol through­out its range. The pres­ence of this bat di­rectly con­tributes to the pop­u­la­tion con­trol of sev­eral in­sect species groups, in­clud­ing mainly lep­i­dopteran moth species. Lep­i­dopteran moths tend to lay their eggs on woody shrubs which pro­vide nour­ish­ment for the young while at the same time harm the woody plant species. Valu­able tree species in­clud­ing those from the genus Pinus, Quer­cus, and Carya can be af­fected by these moths. A study by Boyles et al. (2011) pre­dicted that the dis­ap­pear­ance of bats in North Amer­ica could lead to an es­ti­mated $3.7 bil­lion/year in agri­cul­tural losses. (Boyles, et al., 2011; Har­vey, et al., 2011; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013)

• Positive Impacts
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii is a known car­rier of the ra­bies virus and a fun­gal dis­ease known as histo­plas­mo­sis that can be con­tracted by hu­mans. No de­fin­i­tive fig­ures on con­firmed cases of the ra­bies virus being pre­sent in this bat are avail­able. As a species that roosts in aban­doned human struc­tures, fecal ac­cu­mu­la­tion con­tain­ing pathogens may be haz­ardous to hu­mans. How­ever, the chance of such trans­fer­ence is very low. Klug et al. (2011) re­ported that in a study on the preva­lence of ra­bies in bats, five Rafinesque’s big-eared bats were tested for the ra­bies virus and zero bats tested pos­i­tive for the virus. (Boyles, et al., 2011; Har­vey, et al., 2011; Jones, 1977; Klug, et al., 2011; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • carries human disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Cur­rently, Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii is listed as a species of least con­cern on the IUCN red list, al­though pre­vi­ous (1996) list­ings re­port it as vul­ner­a­ble. afinesque’s big-eared bats are sen­si­tive to habi­tat al­ter­ation and human dis­tur­bance. With human ex­pan­sion and de­vel­op­ment in­creas­ing at an alarm­ing rate, the most detri­men­tal im­pact on this species is habi­tat loss. An in­crease in log­ging prac­tices that de­stroy roost habi­tats in the range of these bats poses a se­ri­ous threat. This bat re­lies on hard­wood habi­tats in order to main­tain sum­mer roost­ing habi­tat and for­ag­ing habi­tat. The main prey item of the Rafinesque’s big-eared bat is moths, which may rely on ma­ture woody plants for lar­val de­vel­op­ment. These woody plants such as oak (Quer­cus), poplar (Pop­u­lus), maple (Acer), and pine (Pinus) are com­monly tar­geted for tim­ber har­vests.

An­other con­cern for this species is the de­struc­tion of roost lo­ca­tions. In some cases, these bats roost in var­i­ous human struc­tures, such as aban­doned build­ings, mine shafts, and bridges. Human ac­tiv­ity may de­stroy ac­tive or po­ten­tial roosts. Human dis­tur­bance dur­ing hi­ber­na­tion pe­ri­ods can cause harm to these bats. Con­ser­va­tion strate­gies pro­hibit­ing human en­trance into hi­ber­nac­ula are sug­gested to avoid dis­tur­bance and arousal of this species dur­ing hi­ber­na­tion.

Since the dis­cov­ery of white-nose syn­drome (WNS) in New York in 2006, pop­u­la­tions of some bats that use cave hi­ber­nac­ula in east­ern North Amer­ica have been dec­i­mated. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats, as well as other bat species in the genus Corynorhi­nus, have not demon­strated sus­cep­ti­bil­ity to the fun­gus that causes WNS. Bernard et al. (2015) re­ported the first con­firmed case of Pseudo­gym­noas­cus de­struc­tans, the fun­gus that causes WNS, pre­sent on the skin of two in­di­vid­u­als out­side of a cave in Ten­nessee. John­son et al. (2012) sug­gested that species-spe­cific win­ter ac­tiv­ity pat­terns such as fre­quent arousal from tor­por along with other eco­log­i­cal and phys­i­o­log­i­cal adap­ta­tions pro­vide de­fense against the harm­ful ef­fects of WNS. ("Con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment of east­ern big-eared bats", 2011; Bernard, et al., 2015; Har­vey, et al., 2011; John­son, et al., 2012a; John­son, et al., 2012b; Jones, et al., 2003; Lacki and Bay­less, 2013; Lacki, et al., 2007)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Keifer Titus (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity - Fall 2015, Cari Mc­gre­gor (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Zeb Pike (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, April Tin­gle (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Jacob Vaught (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

U.S. De­part­ment of Agri­cul­ture. Con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment of east­ern big-eared bats. SRS-145. Asheville, NC: South­ern Re­search Sta­tion. 2011.

Ar­royo-Cabrales, J., S. Al­varez-Castañeda. 2008. "Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 08, 2015 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​details/​17600/​0.

Bernard, R., J. Fos­ter, E. Will­cox, K. Parise, G. Mc­Cracken. 2015. Mol­e­c­u­lar de­tec­tion of the causative agent of white-nose syn­drome on Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) and two spe­ceis of mi­gra­tory bats in the south­east­ern USA. Jour­nal of Wildlife Dis­eases, 51/2: 519-522.

Boyles, J., P. Cryan, G. Mc­Cracken, T. Kunz. 2011. Eco­nomic im­por­tance of bats in agri­cul­ture. Sci­ence, 332/6025: 41-42.

Carver, B., N. Ash­ley. 2008. Roost tree use by sym­patric Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) and south­east­ern my­otis (My­otis aus­tror­i­par­ius). The Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, 160/2: 364-373.

Cock­rum, E. 1956. Hom­ing, move­ments, and longevity of bats. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 37/1: 48-57.

Davis, W. 1959. Dis­pro­por­tion­ate sex ra­tios in hi­ber­nat­ing bats. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 40/1: 16-19.

Gre­gory, B., J. Whitaker, G. Hart­man. 2014. Diet of Rafinesque's big-eared bat (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) in west­ern-cen­tral Louisiana. South­east­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 13/4: 762-769.

Har­vey, M., J. Al­tenbach, T. Best. 2011. Bats of the United States and Canada. Bal­ti­more, MD: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Hurst, T., M. Lacki. 1997. Food habits of Rafinesque's big-eared bat in south­east­ern Ken­tucky. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 78/2: 525-528.

Hurst, T., M. Lacki. 1999. Roost se­lec­tion, pop­u­la­tion size and habi­tat use by a colony of Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii). The Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, 142/2: 363-371.

John­son, J., M. Lacki. 2013. Habi­tat as­so­ci­a­tions of Rafinesque's big-eared bat (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) and their lep­i­dopteran prey in bot­tom­land hard­wood forests. Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 91/2: 94-101.

John­son, J., J. Kropczyn­ski, M. Lacki, G. Lan­glois. 2012. So­cial net­works of Rafinesque's big-eared bat (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) in bot­tom­land hard­wood forests. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 93/6: 1545-1558.

John­son, J., M. Lacki, S. Thomas, J. Grider. 2012. Fre­quent arousals from win­ter tor­por in Rafinesque's big-eared bat (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii). PLoS ONE, 7/11: e49754.

Jones, C. 1977. Ple­co­tus rafinesquii. Mam­malian Species, 69: 1-4.

Jones, K., A. Purvis, J. Git­tle­man. 2003. Bi­o­log­i­cal cor­re­lates of ex­tinc­tion risk in bats. The Amer­i­can Nat­u­ral­ist, 161/4: 601-614.

Klug, B., A. Turmelle, E. James, E. Baer­wald, R. Bar­clay. 2011. Ra­bies preva­lence in mi­gra­tory tree-bats in Al­berta and the in­flu­ence of roost­ing ecol­ogy and sam­pling method on re­ported preva­lence of ra­bies in bats. Jour­nal of Wildlife Dis­eases, 47/1: 64-77.

Lacki, M., M. Bay­less. 2013. A con­ser­va­tion strat­egy for Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bats (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) and South­east­ern My­otis (My­otis aus­tror­i­par­ius). Austin, Texas: Bat Con­ser­va­tion In­ter­na­tional and South­east­ern Bat Di­ver­sity Net­work.

Lacki, M., J. Haynes, A. Kur­tis. 2007. Bats in Forests: Con­ser­va­tion and Man­age­ment. Bal­ti­more, MD: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Lacki, M., K. Ladeur. 2001. Sea­sonal use of lep­i­dopteran prey by Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii). The Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, 145/1: 213-217.

Loeb, S., E. Britzke. 2010. In­tra-and in­ter­spe­cific re­sponses to Rafinesque's big-eared bat (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii) so­cial calls. Acta Chi­roptero­log­ica, 12/2: 329-336.

McAl­lis­ter, C., C. Bursey, A. Burns. 2005. Gas­troin­testi­nal helminths of Rafinesque's big-eared bat, Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii (Chi­roptera: Ves­per­til­ion­idae), from south­west Arkansas, U.S.A.. Com­par­a­tive Par­a­sitol­ogy, 72/1: 121-123.

McAl­lis­ter, C., S. Upton, C. Bursey. 2004. Par­a­sites (Coc­cidia, Trema­toda, Ne­ma­toda) from se­lected bats of Arkansas. Jour­nal of the Arkansas Acad­emy of Sci­ence, 58: 133-136.

Men­zel, M., J. Men­zel, S. Castle­berry, M. Ford, J. Ed­wards. 2002. Il­lus­trated Key to Skins and Skulls of Bats in the South­east­ern and Mid-At­lantic States.. New­ton Square PA, 19073: USDA For­est Ser­vice.

Men­zel, M., J. Men­zel, M. Ford, J. Ed­wards, T. Carter, J. Churchill, J. Kilgo. 2001. Home range and habi­tat use of male Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii). The Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, 145/2: 402-408.

O'Shea, T., M. Bogan, L. El­li­son. 2003. Mon­i­tor­ing trends in bat pop­u­la­tions of the Unites States and ter­ri­to­ries: Sta­tus of the sci­ence and rec­om­men­da­tions for the fu­ture. Wildlife So­ci­ety Bul­letin, 31/1: 16-29.

Par­adiso, J., A. Green­hal. 1967. Longevity records for Amer­i­can bats. Amer­i­can Mid­land Naturlaist, 78/1: 251-252.

Trous­dale, A., D. Beck­ett. 2004. Sea­sonal use of bridges by Rafinesque's big-eared bat Corynorhi­nus rafinesquii, in south­ern Mis­sis­sippi. South­east­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 3/1: 103-112.