The Banana Bat has the longest and narrowest snout of any American bat, a living trumpet. It uses this to delve deep into the flowers of wild banana and other tropical plants with elongated corollas, hence its common names. It lives solely in a narrow strip of the Mexican Pacific coast, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Its habitat is dry tropical forest and transitional woodland, where
The Banana Bat is a small to medium-sized bat, distinguished by the longest and narrowest snout of any bat in the region, which ends in a tiny nose-leaf. It has greyish-brown fur and an extraordinarily long, extensible tongue. It differs from other nectarivorous bats in the region specifically due to the extreme length of its snout, a unique feature not shared by any other species in its range.
Dry tropical forest and transitional forest, in lowlands near the coast. Endemic to a narrow strip of Mexico's Pacific coast, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the states of Colima, Jalisco, Guerrero, México, and Morelos.
Nectarivorous, the Banana Bat feeds on nectar and pollen from deep tubular flowers, such as those of wild banana, occasionally supplemented with soft fruit and insects.
Solitary or in small groups, the Banana Bat is nocturnal. It moves between patches of flowering vegetation, following the availability of deep tubular flowers, on which it depends almost exclusively.
Its populations are considered to be in decline due to the continued loss of the coastal dry tropical forest on which it depends. Its distribution is already restricted to a narrow strip of the Mexican Pacific.
Deforestation and fragmentation of coastal dry tropical forest due to agricultural, livestock, and tourism expansion, and loss of the deep-flowered plants on which its feeding depends.
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