Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Macro­derma gigas or the Ghost Bat is found in North­ern Aus­tralia where it has a scat­tered dis­tri­b­u­tion. It is found north of 29°S in West­ern Aus­tralia, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ries, and Queens­land.

(Ride 1970, Stra­han 1983)

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian
  • native

Habi­tat

Ghost Bats have been recorded in both arid re­gions (Pil­bara re­gion) and rain­for­est areas (north Queens­land). Macro­derma gigas roost in caves, old mine tun­nels and in deep cracks in rocks. They usu­ally roost in colonies but, be­cause many of their roost­ing sites are being de­stroyed, it is rare to find large colonies. Ghost Bats are dis­trib­uted widely but patchily across the north­ern half of Aus­tralia and are found in a va­ri­ety of trop­i­cal habi­tats. Per­haps the species' most fa­mous roost­ing and nest­ing sites, and largest colonies, are at Mount Etna caves, near Rock­hamp­ton in Queens­land.

(Nowak 1991, Ride 1970, Stra­han 1983)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

SIZE: Head and body length is 10 to 13cm and fore­arm length is 10.2 to 11.2cm. Fe­males are smaller than males.

WEIGHT: 130 to 170 grams.

Ghost Bats have a light grey, al­most white, ap­pear­ance and large long ears that are joined at the base. The head and body mea­sure up to 130 mm with a wingspan of about 500 mm.

In the Pil­bara dis­trict of West­ern Aus­tralia, Ghost Bats are of the pale 'ghostly' desert form with ashy-grey back and white un­der-parts. Ju­ve­niles are sooty-grey all over. In the north­ern part of their range, es­pe­cially in Kim­ber­ley, Arn­hem Land, and around Rock­hamp­ton in Queens­land, adult Ghost Bats are a dark sooty-grey.

(Nowak 1991, Ride 1970, Stra­han 1983)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  130 to 170 g

  4.58 to 5.99 oz

• Range length

  115 to 130 mm

  4.53 to 5.12 in

• Average length

  127.50 mm

  5.02 in

• Average wingspan

  500 mm

  19.69 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  0.639 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Lit­tle is known about mat­ing in ghost bats.

Mat­ing takes place in July and Au­gust. Ges­ta­tion lasts about three months and fe­males bear a sin­gle young be­tween Sep­tem­ber and No­vem­ber. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity is at­tained in the sec­ond year of life. (Nowak, 1991, Ride 1970, Stra­han 1983)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• viviparous

• Breeding season

  Mating takes place in July and August, births occur from September to November.

• Range number of offspring

  1 (low)

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  3 months

• Average weaning age

  3 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

Moth­ers form nurs­ery colonies sep­a­rate from the males while the young are being weaned. While the young are still suck­ling, they are left in the roost while the fe­males go out to hunt. Ju­ve­niles then hunt with their moth­ers until they be­come com­pletely in­de­pen­dent. Young begin fly­ing at 7 weeks and be­come weaned by the March fol­low­ing their birth. (Ride 1970, Stra­han 1983)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• female parental care

Lifes­pan/Longevity

In­for­ma­tion on lifes­pan in this species is lack­ing.

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  22.6 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

Macro­derma gigas are se­cre­tive and, being ex­clu­sively cave-dwelling, are so un­ob­tru­sive that human res­i­dents, even min­ers who enter the tun­nels in which they occur, will claim to know of the pres­ence of other bats but not M. gigas.

These bats roost alone or in small groups, though larger colonies occur sea­son­ally. Sexes be­come largely seg­re­gated to dif­fer­ent colonies dur­ing the birthing sea­son and be­fore young are weaned.

(Nowak, 1991, Ride 1970)

• Key Behaviors
• nocturnal
• motile
• social

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Macro­derma gigas is Aus­tralia's only car­niv­o­rous bat, eat­ing large in­sects, rep­tiles, frogs, birds, small mam­mals, and some­times other bat species. Much of this prey is cap­tured on the ground. Ghost Bats drop on mam­mals from above, en­velop­ing them with their flight mem­branes, and kill them with bites about the head and neck. They eat large amounts of food in­clud­ing flesh, bones, teeth, fur, small feath­ers, and the chiti­nous ex­oskele­tons of in­sects. Ghost Bats ap­pear to need this roughage in their diet be­cause if they are fed on bone­less meat in cap­tiv­ity they soon be­come dis­tressed and fouled with loose exc­reta.

(Ride 1970)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Ghost bats have few nat­ural preda­tors, though larger owls may take them at night and young may fall prey to roost preda­tors, such as snakes. Medium-sized owls com­pete for in­sects and small mam­mals.

(Nowak 1991)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Ghost bats are im­por­tant preda­tors of small mam­mals, birds, and rep­tiles in the areas in which they live.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Ghost bats are im­por­tant in the con­trol of ro­dents, es­pe­cially in­tro­duced house mice, and other small mam­mals. They also pro­duce guano, which can be used as a fer­til­izer.

• Positive Impacts
• produces fertilizer
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no sig­nif­i­cant neg­a­tive ef­fects of ghost bats.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Ghost Bats are sen­si­tive to dis­tur­bance. Human in­trud­ers to a cave colony may cause the group to be­come ner­vous and leave. Many roost caves have been de­stroyed or are threat­ened by min­ing ac­tiv­ity. Dis­tur­bance and loss of roost­ing sites due to min­ing, tourism and in­ter­nal dere­lic­tion of mines through aging of tim­ber sup­ports are known threats. In re­cent times pop­u­la­tion de­clines could be at­trib­ut­able to com­pe­ti­tion for prey with feral cats, and prey lost through habi­tat mod­i­fi­ca­tion by fire and live­stock

Ghost Bats are pro­tected by na­tional leg­is­la­tion in Aus­tralia.

(UNEP 2001)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Justin Cooper (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Chris Yahnke (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point.

Ref­er­ences

1 Oc­to­ber 2001. "UNEP World Con­ser­va­tion Mon­i­tor­ing Cen­tre" (On-line). Ac­cessed 27 Oc­to­ber 2001 at http://​www.​unep-wcmc.​org/​species/​data/​species_​sheets/​ghostbat.​htm.

1 Sep­tem­ber 2001. "Wel­come to Perth Zoo" (On-line). Ac­cessed 27 Oc­to­ber 2001 at http://​www.​perthzoo.​wa.​gov.​au/​ghostbat.​html.

Nowak, R. 1991. *Walker's Mam­mals of the World, 5th ed., Vol I*. Lon­don: John Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Ride, W. 1970. *A Guide to the Na­tive Mam­mals of Aus­tralia*. Mel­bourne: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Stra­han, R. 1983. *The Aus­tralian Mu­seum Com­plete Book of Aus­tralian Mam­mals*. Lon­don: Angus & Robert­son Pub­lish­ers.

Thorn­back, J., M. Jenk­ins. 1982. *The IUCN Mam­mal Red Data Book, Part 1*. Gland.: IUCN.