Chapin's free-tailed bat (''Mops chapini'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is found in central and southern Africa.

Description

Chapin's free-tailed bat is a relatively small species, measuring in length, including a tail, and weighing around . The body has pale cinnamon-brown or greyish fur that fades to near-white towards the middle of the belly. The wings are white or pale brown in colour. A distinctive crest of hair rises from a small lappet between the ears. This is relatively small and bland in females, but is three times larger, at up to long, and striking bi-coloured in males, being reddish chestnut at the base, and whitish above. The crest is especially well developed in breeding males, and helps to disperse scent from a gland at its base.

Biology and habitat

Chapin's free-tailed bat is found across much of central and southern Africa, between Ethiopia and South Sudan in the northeast, the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

in the northwest, and northern Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe in the south. An isolated population is also known from Ghana and the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. Within this region it inhabits

savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

habitats, river valleys and woodland. The bat is

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

, feeding in flight. Its echolocation calls last five to ten milliseconds, and sweep from 27 down to 19 kHz.

Sources

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1830904 Mops (bat) Bats of Africa Mammals described in 1917 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Joel Asaph Allen