The Bogotá yellow-shouldered bat (''Sturnira bogotensis'') is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found in Colombia,

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

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 (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...

. 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 an ...

; it may also consume nectar and

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...

Taxonomy

The Bogotá yellow-shouldered bat was first described in 1927 by American mammalogist

H. Harold Shamel Henry Harold Shamel (26 June 1885–1963) was an American mammalogist. George Henry Hamilton Tate named a species of bat after him, Shamel's horseshoe bat (''Rhinolophus shameli''). Life Shamel was born 26 June 1885 in Ellsworth County, Kan ...

, who named it as a subspecies 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, sho ...

, ''Sturnira lilium bogotensis''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

had been collected in Bogotá, Colombia. Within its genus, it forms a clade (shares a common ancestor) with the following species: the hairy yellow-shouldered bat (''S. erythromos''), '' S. hondurensis'', '' S. koopmanhilli'', the highland yellow-shouldered bat (''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 measuri ...

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

''. 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 categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. Th ...

by the IUCN. 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