Fish eating bats: predators of native and exotic species

Abstract

[Extract] In 1984 Australia's big footed bat, Myotis macropus (from a recent DNA assessment for better or worse and variously known as Myotis adversus and Myotis mallacorum), previously thought to eat insects such as water boatmen and mayflies, was also thought to be a fish eater. The search was initiated after one of us (Simon) found fish scales in a greeting card left in his hand by a nervous bat. In 1970 Peter Dwyer (UQld) observed this species flying over water and dragging its long recurved toes through the water to collect fallen insects, and suggested that it might also catch the occasional fish.