Ecuadorian sac-winged bat

The Ecuadorian sac-winged bat (Balantiopteryx infusca) is a small insect-eating bat of the family Emballonuridae, the sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats. It lives in Colombia and Ecuador and was first described by Oldfield Thomas in 1897. It is the sister species of Thomas's sac-winged bat (Balantiopteryx io), is larger than that species and smaller than the gray sac-winged bat (Balantiopteryx plicata), and is darker in colour because it lacks the white trim of the gray sac-winged bat. It roosts in sociable colonies at the mouths of caves, in abandoned mines and in cracks in rock, and prefers places with plenty of light. The IUCN Red List treats it as Vulnerable with a decreasing population, a decline attributed to habitat destruction through deforestation, and in 2013 Bat Conservation International placed it on its worldwide priority list of 35 bat species for conservation.