Hipposideros cervinus
Common name: The Fawn-colored Roundleaf Bat.
Hipposideros cervinus has a broad but patchy distribution, reaching from Malaysia to North East Australia
See if you can spot the two lateral leaflets on the muzzle just below the edges of the noseleaf
Physical Description
Nose: Like all roundleaf bats Hipposideros cervinus has a very distinctive noseleaf, which in this case is a pinkish grey color. Hipposideros cervinus is quite easy to identify in the field because it has two lateral leaflets, small crescents of skin, on the muzzle, either side of the noseleaf and just below the eye.
Fur: The fur on the head and back is brown, and the color is a bit like that of a young deer or fawn, which is what gives this species it’s English name. In fact its scientific name, cervinus, comes from the Latin word for deer, “cervus”. The fur on the undersides is a bit paler than on the back.
Ears: The ears are rather triangular at the tips in Hipposideros cervinus, the antitragus is small but sharply pointed, and the inside of the leading edge of the ear has lots of fine fur.
Hipposideros cervinus hanging from a small branch
Wings: The wings are a dark brown, broad and rounded, so this species can fly with great manoevurability in the forest.
Tail: Like all Hipposideros, a small tail membrane stretches between the legs, but doesn’t go much beyond the ankle. The tail itself is fully enclosed by the membrane, with maybe just a mm or two of the tail poking out beyond the edge. At each ankle, there is a small rod of cartilage called a calcar, to which the tail membrane is attached, which helps the bat control the position of the membrane in flight.
Size: This is one of our medium-sized bats, with an average forearm of about 50 mm, and average weight of about 10g.
Ecology
This is a common bat often found roosting in large colonies in caves that can include more than 100,000 individuals. They also use smaller caves and crevices among boulders and sometimes roost in association with Hipposideros bicolor species.
Where they can be found
Hipposideros cervinus has a very large range; from Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Philippines through to Vanuatu, and NE Australia.
