The Florida Bonneted Bat

There are still many questions about the Florida bonneted bat that need further research to answer.  Florida bonneted bats have long narrow wings designed for very fast flight but are not adapted for tight turning.  A comparison would be that all other native bats tend to be acrobatic in flight like moths while Florida bonneted bats could be compared to jet airplanes flying fast at high altitude in straighter lines.  This also means they tend to fly higher than other native bats and tend not to forage in areas where there are tight flyways or abundant obstacles.  It is estimated that they could fly dozens of miles every night to forage.  

These characteristics make studying these species challenging for researchers since they tend to travel above traditional mist netting set ups they use to capture bats.  In Miami-Dade County urban areas, Florida bonneted bats then must forage for food every night in an increasingly limited number of open spaces that remain in the urban landscape.  Areas in the Miami-Dade County that they have been shown to utilize for foraging are large, dark, unobstructed, open spaces that border adjacent natural or semi-natural areas such as golf courses, very large unlit parking lots, open fields in parks, airports, and large freshwater lakes

Florida bonneted bats tend to form small colonies with numbers ranging from just a few individuals to dozens.  They appear to prefer to roost in cavities, whether natural or artificial.  Known artificial roosts are in specially made bat boxes in Ft. Myers, Miami and near the Punta Gorda area and also in roofs of homes and condominiums in the Miami area.  Natural roosts in tree cavities have been documented at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Big Cypress National Preserve, Babcock Webb Wildlife Management Area, the Avon Park Air Force Range and urban Miami-Dade County.

Zoo Miami veterinarians also assist the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in their studies of the Florida bonneted bat by conducting sonograms on females during permitted catch ups to try and find out more about fetal development and the reproductive characteristics of the species. See a segment of an ultrasound of a bat pup above.

This strategy was designed to reduce human/wildlife conflict for the citizens of Miami-Dade County and provide these special bats safe harbor so they can continue to persist in Miami and help clean our skies every night while we are sleeping. The strategy proved to be a success and one house became occupied within three weeks! One year out from installing the array, seven out of the sixteen roosts were occupied and pups were already being raised in several of them. In 2021, eleven out of seventeen roosts are occupied with a total population of over 100 Florida bonneted bats in them. 

These installations were made possible by generous support from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bat Conservation International, Florida Sol Systems, Inc, Florida Power and Light, the City of Coral Gables, and the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund.

In 2019, Florida Power and Light, Bat Conservation International and Zoo Miami's Conservation and Research Department have teamed up to form the FPL Bat Lab at Zoo Miami. This new lab is based at Zoo Miami and is dedicated to solving some of the ecological issues for the federally endangered Florida bonneted bat, especially the unique urban populations in Miami-Dade County. To head up the joint program, BCI recruited Dr. Melquisedec Gamba-Rios to help design and execute some of the research protocols to solve some of the mysteries surrounding #ourendangeredneighbor. With the new lab, a new website was also launched to serve as a centralized resource for the project Miamibatlab.org.

To check for occupation of the artificial roosts that were installed around Miami, we must use a small camera on a very long telescoping pole.