Mexican Free-tail Bat

Distribution

Reproduction

Habitat

Diet

Mortality

Management

Literature Cited

Mortality

There are many occasional predators for bats in general, but the real threat comes from snakes and raptors (Altringham 1996).  For the Mexican free-tail bat, the threat comes in the form of raptors.  Raccoons, opossums, and skunks will also eat some of the fallen bats.  Snakes such as rat snakes can climb cave walls to attack the resting bats (Schmidly 1999).  Other snakes such as copperheads, coach whips, and coral snakes are predators of bats (Wilkins 1989).  The Mexican free-tail bat is susceptible to predation simply because of how they leave the cave and the fact that they all leave at essentially the same time every day.  This makes them easy pickings for raptors on the prowl, allowing the predator to be waiting as the bats exit the cave (Krutzch et al. 2002).  The oldest reported Mexican free-tail bat was 8 years but it is estimated that they have a 70-80% survival rate with an average lifespan of 15 years.  Males and Females both have the same life expectancy (Wilkins 1989).  The major cause of declines in the populations of the Mexican free-tail bat is loss and/or destruction of roosting habitat (TPWD website).