Threatened species & ecological communities

The Action Plan for Australian Bats

Environment Australia, 1999
ISBN 0 642 2546 363

Recovery outlines and taxon summaries (continued)

Taxon summary: Central Long-eared Bat

Family: Vespertilionidae

Scientific Name: Nyctophilus timoriensis (Geoffroy, 1806) (Central form)

Common Name: Central Long-eared Bat

Conservation status: Lower Risk (near threatened)

Past range and abundance

Coolgardie, Hampton and northern Avon Bioregions in Western Australia, Gawler Bioregion and western part of the ‘Eyre and York Blocks’ Bioregion in South Australia. A specimen from Ooldea in the Great Victoria Desert Bioregion of South Australia. One other specimen from a car grill after a night-time drive from Marla (Stony Plains Bioregion of SA) to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory via the Stuart Highway in c.1985. No historical data on abundance.

Present range and abundance

Known from 15 localities in Western Australia and 19 in South Australia. No evidence that range has contracted, but it is apparently rare in Great Victoria Desert, Nullarbor and Stony Plains Bioregions while it is locally common in Coolgardie, Hampton, Gawler and western Eyre-York Block Bioregions.

Habitat

Gleans ground, bark and foliage surfaces; forages in and against cluttered airspaces. The species is often netted, and sometimes caught in pit traps, in heavy eucalypt woodlands and tall woodlands of the Coolgardie Bioregion of Western Australia with a tall shrub understorey of Melaleuca lanceolata, M. pauperiflora, M. quadrifaria, Eremophila spp. etc. Less common in open woodlands. Has been netted at dams in the Coolgardie and Hampton Bioregions of Western Australia while in South Australia has been associated with a range of mallee (Eucalyptus) species, Acacia papyrocarpa, A. ramulosa, Casuarina cristata and found to the fringes of the treeless Nullarbor Plain.

Current threats

Too little is known of its ecology and distribution to identify threats. Extensive clearing of mallee for grain crops in the ‘Eyre and York Blocks’ Bioregion, and grazing in the Gawler Bioregion, may have diminished local populations. Populations occur in the Dundas, Jilbadji and Mt Manning Nature Reserves in Western Australia, and on several Conservation Parks in South Australia.

Recommended actions

Bibliography

Aitken P. F. 1975. Two new bat records from South Australia with a field key and checklist to the bats of the State. South Australian Naturalist 50, 9–15.

Dell J. and How R.A. 1985. Vertebrate Fauna. In: The biological survey of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Part 3: Jackson–Kalgoorlie Study Area. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 23, 39–66.

McKenzie N.L and Robinson A. C. (Eds). (1987). A Biological Survey of the Nullarbor Region, south and Western Australia in 1984. SA Department of Environment and Natural Resources, WA Department of Conservation and Land Management, Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.

McKenzie N.L. and Rolfe J.K. 1995. Vertebrate Fauna. In: The Biological Survey of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Part 11: Boorabbin-Southern Cross Study Area. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 49, 31–65.

Owens H.M., Hudspith T.J., Robinson A.C., Dobrzinski I., Armstrong D.M., Pedler L.P. and Lang P.J. 1995. A Biological Survey of Yumburra Conservation Park, South Australia. SA Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Parnaby H. 1995. Greater Long-eared Bat, Nyctophilus timoriensis. pp. 507–508 in R. Strahan (Ed.) The Mammals of Australia. Reed Books, Chatswood, NSW.

Robinson A.C., Casperson K.D., Canty P.C. and Macdonald C.A. 1988. A Biological Survey of the Gawler Ranges, South Australia in October 1985. South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service and South Australian Museum, Adelaide.

Authors for the species

Norm McKenzie
Terry Reardon
Bruce Thomson