Kitti's hog-nosed bat

Kitti's hog-nosed bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai), also called the bumblebee bat or hog-nosed bat, is a near-threatened species of bat. It is the only living member of the family Craseonycteridae and lives in western Thailand and southeast Myanmar, usually in limestone caves near rivers.

This bat is the smallest bat in the world and might be the smallest mammal overall by body length. Another very small animal, the Etruscan shrew, is smaller only by weight. Kitti's hog-nosed bat has a reddish-brown or grey coat and a special pig-like snout. Groups of these bats vary in size, but about 100 live together in each cave. They hunt insects during short periods in the evening and early morning around nearby forests. Each female bat has one baby each year.

The bat population in Myanmar is not well known, but in Thailand it lives only in one province and could be in danger of extinction. Main dangers come from human activities, such as habitat degradation and disturbing their resting places in caves.

Description

Kitti's hog-nosed bat is very tiny, measuring about 29–33 mm (1.1–1.3 in) long and weighing just 2 g (0.071 oz). Because of its small size, it is called the "bumblebee bat". It is the smallest bat species and might be the smallest mammal in the world by body length, but this can depend on how you measure it. Small shrews, like the Etruscan shrew, may be lighter but are longer.

This bat has a special, pig-like snout with tiny holes for nostrils. Its ears are big, but its eyes are small and hidden under fur. The bat’s upper body is reddish-brown or grey, while its belly is lighter. Its wings are large and dark, helping it hover in the air. Even though it has some bones for a tail, Kitti's hog-nosed bat does not have a visible tail. It has a stretch of skin between its back legs that helps it fly and catch insects.

Range and habitat

Kitti's hog-nosed bat lives in limestone caves near rivers in dry evergreen or deciduous forests. In Thailand, these bats are found only in a small area of the Tenasserim Hills in Sai Yok District, Kanchanaburi Province, close to the Khwae Noi River. While many of these bats live in Sai Yok National Park in the Dawna Hills, some groups live outside the park and are not protected.

Scientists first found one of these bats in Myanmar in 2001. Since then, they have found at least nine places where the bats live in the limestone hills of the Dawna and Karen Hills near the Thanlwin, Ataran, and Gyaing Rivers in Kayin and Mon States. The bats in Thailand and Myanmar look the same, but they make different sounds to talk to each other. We do not know if the bats from Thailand and Myanmar can have babies together.

Biology

Kitti's hog-nosed bat lives in caves in limestone hills, staying far from the cave entrance. Groups of these bats can be quite large, with an average of about 100 bats together, and some caves having up to around 500. The bats like to rest high up on walls or roofs, keeping plenty of space between each other. They also move between different caves depending on the season.

These bats are only active for short times—about 30 minutes in the evening and 20 minutes in the morning. During this time, they fly close to the ground in fields of cassava and kapok, or near bamboo and teak trees. They mainly eat small flies, other tiny insects, and spiders, catching them while flying or picking them from leaves.

In about April, when the dry season ends, female bats have one baby each. The baby bats either stay in the cave or hang onto their mother while she feeds.

Taxonomy

Kitti's hog-nosed bat is the only living species in the family Craseonycteridae. Scientists found that this bat is most closely related to bats in the families Hipposideridae and Rhinopomatidae.

Before 1974, no one in the world knew about this bat. It was named after the Thai scientist Kitti Thonglongya, who worked with a British scientist named John E. Hill. After Thonglongya passed away in February 1974, Hill described the bat and gave it the scientific name Craseonycteris thonglongyai to honor his friend.

Conservation

Kitti's hog-nosed bat is listed as near-threatened by the IUCN, meaning it faces some risks but is not in immediate danger.

When the bat was first found in the 1970s, some places where they live were disturbed by tourism, scientific work, and people taking bats as souvenirs. However, many bat colonies live in hard-to-reach spots, so these actions may not have hurt the species much overall. Today, a big threat in Thailand is the yearly burning of forests during the bats' breeding season. There are also worries about building a gas pipeline that could affect their homes. We don’t know much about threats to the bats in Myanmar. In 2007, this bat was chosen as one of the Top 10 important species by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered project.