Media release

From: RiAus

The golden-tipped bat has won this year’s Cosmos Magazine “Australian Mammal of the Year.” 

This tiny bat relies on bird species for housing – which in turn rely on insects – spiders for food, and of course, the dense forest that protects them all.  

The master of camouflage, the golden-tipped bat, is about the length of an average person’s thumb and weighs somewhere between a 10 and 20 cent coin.

Golden-tipped bats have a highly specialised diet, snacking on orb-weaving spiders that they pluck from their webs. Their radar-shaped ears, and the ultra-high frequency calls they emit, allow them to navigate through the cluttered forest understorey and lock in prey.

The extremely high frequency ultrasonic calls are high resolution, but they drop off over distance, so the bats need to fly close to the forest floor. Basically, they’re interpreting a highly detailed 3D map as they fly and echolocate.

The golden-tipped bat likes to free-load in the suspended nests of unsuspecting birds, even if they’re still occupied!

They scratch out a chamber below the nests of yellow-throated scrubwrens and brown gerygones – which are suspended. Up to 12 bats have been found happily squished in together in a single space. 

Another bat, the Southern bent-wing bat, won the first award in 2022.