São Tomé leaf-nosed bat

The São Tomé leaf-nosed bat, Macronycteris thomensis, is endemic to the island of São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Africa. The Portuguese zoologist José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage described it in 1891 as Hipposideros thomensis, and the species name records its endemism. It inhabits primary and secondary moist lowland forest and is also seen in plantations, and it roosts in caves, lava tubes, rock crevices and water extraction tubes, in roosts of up to a hundred. Breeding is once a year in the rainy season, with a single pup after about four months of gestation and weaning at about fourteen weeks. The diet is large insects such as beetles and cicadas. It is not uncommon and has no identified special threats, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.