Slit-Faced Bats: Nycteridae

Slit-faced bats are small to medium in size. Head and body length is 1.6 to 3.7 inches (4 to 9.3 centimeters), and adults weigh 0.2 to 1.2 ounces (6 to 36 grams). Also called hollow-faced bats, the feature that gives slit-faced bats their name is a deep groove that runs from their nostrils to a pit in the middle of their forehead. The dent is hidden by fur, which makes it hard to see.

Species of slit-faced bats have large, oval ears and their wings are broad. Slit-faced bats range in color from orange, brown, and red to gray. These bats also have a distinctive feature among mammals at the end of their tail. The long tail, completely enclosed within a membrane, ends in a T-shaped tip.