The Bogotá yellow-shouldered bat (''Sturnira bogotensis'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

at altitudes from 300 m to above 2000 m, particularly in

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

. The species is primarily

frugivorous A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance ...

; it may also consume

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

and

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

Taxonomy

The Bogotá yellow-shouldered bat was first described in 1927 by American mammalogist H. Harold Shamel, who named it as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the

Little yellow-shouldered bat The little yellow-shouldered bat (''Sturnira lilium'') is a bat species from South and Central America. It is a frugivore A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, ...

, ''Sturnira lilium bogotensis''. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

had been collected in Bogotá, Colombia. Within its genus, it forms a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

(shares a common ancestor) with the following species: the hairy yellow-shouldered bat (''S. erythromos''), '' S. hondurensis'', '' S. koopmanhilli'', the

highland yellow-shouldered bat The highland yellow-shouldered bat (''Sturnira ludovici'') is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela ...

(''S. ludovici''), the greater yellow-shouldered bat (''S. magna''), the

Talamancan yellow-shouldered bat The Talamancan yellow-shouldered bat (''Sturnira mordax'') is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found only in Costa Rica and Panama, and there are no subspecies. Description The bat is relatively small, with adults measuring ...

(''S. mordax''), Tschudi's yellow-shouldered bat (''S. oporaphilum''), '' S. perla'', and

Tilda's yellow-shouldered bat Tilda's yellow-shouldered bat (''Sturnira tildae'') is a bat species found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Tri ...

(''S. tildae'').

Description

The Bogotá yellow-shouldered bat is considered medium sized for the genus ''

Sturnira ''Sturnira'' known as a yellow-shouldered bat or American epauleted bat, is a genus of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. The genus name comes from the Latin for " starling" and refers to , which took part in an 1836 voyage to Brazil during whic ...

''. It has a forearm length of , though some consider that measurement inaccurate and suspect the true average is longer.

Range and habitat

The Bogotá yellow-shouldered bat is native to South America where its range includes the following countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. While it has previously been listed as occurring in Bolivia and Argentina, those records were determined to be incorrect. It is found at relatively high elevation montane areas from above sea level.

Conservation

As of 2018, it is evaluated as a

least concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still p ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. Its population trend is thought to be stable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogota yellow-shouldered bat Sturnira Mammals of Colombia Mammals of the Andes Altiplano Cundiboyacense Mammals described in 1927 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot