Nigerian free-tailed bat
species of mammal
The Nigerian free-tailed bat (Mops nigeriae) is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is native to two widely separated parts of Africa, and is sometimes considered to represent two separate species.
Description
The Nigerian free-tailed bat is one of the larger lesser mastiff bats, measuring about 11 cm (4.3 in) in body length, with a 4 cm (1.6 in) tail. It has very dark brown fur, with bands of white hair on the lower surfaces of the wings join the body. The wings and the membranes between the legs are white and translucent. The head is flattened in shape, with large round ears connected by a band of skin rolled over into a ridge. Males have a crest of hair behind this ridge, which they can raise, apparently as a display to females.
Distribution and habitat
The Nigerian free-tailed bat has two subspecies, found in distinct regions of Africa. The nominate subspecies, N. nigeriae nigeriae, is found in a band of territory running from Sierra Leone in the west to extreme northern Congo in the east, and occasionally as far east as Ethiopia. A more southerly subspecies, N. nigeriae spillmanni, is found from the southernmost parts of Congo to Botswana and from Angola to Tanzania and Malawi.
“Nigerian free-tailed bat” enters the record as species of mammal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nigerian, free-tailed and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Nigerian free-tailed bat” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Nigerian, free-tailed and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1832845. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nigerian free-tailed bat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.