Emballonura raffrayana

Habitat. Raffray’s Sheath-tailed Bat occupies limestone caves and mining tunnels. Food and Feeding. Raffray’s Sheath-tailed Bat is insectivorous and is believed to use aerial feeding and foliage-gleaning. Breeding. Breeding groups Raffray’s Sheath-tailed Bats consist of males, females, and dependent young individually spaced a few centimeters apart. In Papua New Guinea, females with nursing young are known from May in Sandaun (West Sepik) Province andJune in New Ireland Province. Activity patterns. Raffray’s Sheath-tailed Bat is presumably crepuscular. It roosts on vertical walls with all four appendages in contact with substrate. Movements, Home range and Social organization. All male groups of Raffray’s Sheathtailed Bats are reported from Sandaun Province. Roosting groups typically consisting of 10 - 30 individuals, but occasionally solitary individuals are found. They often cohabit cave twilight zones with other species of emballonurids including Small Asian Sheathtailed Bats (E. alecto), Large-eared Sheath-tailed Bats (E. dianae), and Seri’s Sheathtailed Bat (E. serii).

Sumber: Emballonuridae

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. Raffray’s Sheath-tailed Bat has a large distribution and presumably large and stable overall population, and it does not face major threats. Beneficial conservation actions would include protection of roosting caves and use of acoustic surveys to improve understanding the distribution.

Sumber: Emballonuridae

Descriptive notes. Head-body 37 - 5 - 58 mm, tail 10 - 5 - 14 mm, ear 11 - 17 mm, hindfoot 5 9 mm, forearm 37 - 5 - 47 - 2 mm; weight 4 - 2 - 10 - 2 g. Raffray’s Sheath-tailed Bat is sexually dimorphic in body size; females tend to be larger than males. There is also variation among subspecies, with corfrom Bismark Archipelago consistently larger on average in body measurements than raffrayana from New Guinea. Long, silky dorsal fur consists of bicolored hairs: red-brown to dark brown hairs over white bases. Venter is pale gray-brown, with scattered white hairs and some white frosting on hair tips. Exposed skin including flight membranes is blackish brown. Claws on hindfeet are bicolored: brown at bases, with white tips. Narrow ear rises slightly above crown and terminates in rounded margin. Median channel separates nostrils. Muzzle is nearly hairless. Eyes are conspicuous and larger than most other species of Em & zöonura.