Endangered
Guadeloupe Big-eyed Bat
Chiroderma improvisum
Guadeloupe Big-eyed Bat is a bat in the family Phyllostomidae (order Chiroptera) — Chiroderma improvisum, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
Its fur has a woolly texture. Its hairs are mostly a pale brownish-gray. The bases of the hairs are darker, while the tips are a rich, dark brown. Some individuals have a distinct white stripe down their backs.
Its body length is 85–88 mm (3.3–3.5 in).
Range and habitat
It has been documented on the islands of Guadeloupe and Montserrat, both of that are part of the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean Sea. In 2016, it was documented for the first time on Saint Kitts Island, that is also part of the Lesser Antilles. This discovery expanded the known range of the species by 80 km (50 mi).
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
It is threatened by habitat loss mostly because of Hurricane Hugo, that destroyed 90% of its population in 1989. The species may be locally extinct in some areas of Guadeloupe. It is currently evaluated as endangered by the IUCN.
The 2016 listing as endangered was an uplisting from its 2008 listing as vulnerable. In 2008, individuals of this species were captured in Montserrat, alleviating fears that it had gone extinct.
Guadeloupe Big-eyed Bat is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Guadeloupe Big-eyed Bat, Wikidata item Q308771. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
