Ipanema Bat
We first captured this medium sized frugivorous bat in a private reserve in Misiones in March 2018. In fact we captured two together in the same net – a post lactating female and a juvenile. They are quite rare. Since then we have caught several in Misiones, and in March 2023 we caught one in our net in Reserva Don Luis, in Monte Grande. We believe that this is the first Pygoderma bilabiatum captured in the Esteros del Ibera.
It’s striking features are the bright white marks on the shoulders, the large bulbous greenish eyes and the yellow interior of the ear including the tragus. The upper lip gives the appearance of being double. The long dorsal fur is tricolour – dark/pale/dark and the ventral fur is more or less unicolour and paler. There are bare patches of pink skin on the ventral side of the shoulders The weight of the female was 24g and the juvenile 16g. Forearm lengths were slightly smaller than those of Sturnira lilium – 41.1 and 38.0mm respectively.
This bat belongs to the family Phyllostomidae and is uncommon in the NE of Argentina.
