Big bonneted bat

The big bonneted bat, also called Dabbene's mastiff bat, Eumops dabbenei, is a large free-tailed bat of the family Molossidae native to South America. It is named for a former conservator at the Buenos Aires National Museum. Adults are about 19 centimetres long and weigh around 100 grams, with a thick tail, chestnut or pale gray fur that is lighter below, and broad, short ears that join at the base in the centre of the forehead. Males have a throat gland whose secretion stains and mats the fur. A northern population lives in Venezuela and Colombia and a southern one in Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina, with one specimen from the southern Pantanal in Brazil. It lives in low vegetation with patches of tropical forest at up to 1,100 metres, eats insects, roosts in hollow trees and buildings, and gives piercing shrieks while foraging.