Background
information
Australian animals, tree hollows and nestboxes
Australian topics
Nankeen kestrel
Eastern pygmy possum
Green tree frog
Microbats general
Batboxes in
Organ Pipes National Park
Gould's wattled bat
Chocolate wattled bat
Large-footed myotis
Bats, Mosquitoes and Dollars
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Batbox - Large-footed myotis |
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The photos below were taken in mid April 2001 along a watercourse in Lota, a suburb of Brisbane. From the photograph, the bat is believed to be Myotis moluccarum. Lota is a bayside suburb and the site is only a few hundred metres from bayside
mangroves. The box is located in a narrow strip of open vegetation along a watercourse
containing rank weeds. It is mounted on a large Eucalyptus tereticornis about 5 metres
from the ground. This box has contained up to 20 Gould’s wattled bats on previous
visits. |
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| The box is one of a pair spaced about 15 metres apart and,
on the occasion of this visit, the other box (previously empty on all other visits)
contained about 20 Gould’s wattled bats. The box is based on the American model with parallel sides. It is constructed from 12mm ply roughened with a tile scourer. |
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| The dimensions of each compartment are 375 high x 210 wide
x 30 deep. The back board of the box extends down to form a small landing platform. The design of the box copies an earlier box erected at the same site by Andrew
Dinwoodie, to a design obtained from an unknown publication. The earlier box had three
compartments which were lined with shadecloth for grip. |
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| After a few years the shadecloth had started
to pull away from the ply and this rendered one of the compartments unusable. The outer
compartment was also smashed by vandals and this lifted the lid of the box, causing the
colony of gould’s wattled bats to abandon it the following winter. Note that this is not necessarily the best design for this bat. It is simply one
that has had success with a single bat. |
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