Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission

Take a look at the secret lives of these endangered bats in what is believed to be the first-ever video taken inside a bonneted bat’s natural roost.

To find Florida bonneted bats you would usually look in artificial roosts such as bat houses.

“The bats definitely yawned a lot. We probably woke them up,” one of the biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who obtained the video said. “I think some were scratching or grooming.”

Bats mainly rest during the day in a roost, getting ready to go out at night to forage for insects.

During an annual survey of red cockaded woodpeckers, a biologist with the Archbold Biological Station in Florida discovered the bats in a tree cavity at the Avon Park Air Force Range. A biologist joined partner agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to document the roost.

The Florida bonneted bat (eumops floridanus) is the largest bat in the state and can reach a length of 6.5 inches with a wingspan of 20 inches. Its diet primarily consists of insects, which is great for mosquito control. To learn more about these strange looking mammals, see this Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Website