The Laboratory Care of the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat
- 1 May 1958
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Mammalogy
- Vol. 39 (2) , 262-265
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1376200
Abstract
In order to better understand and appraise the possible role of the bat as a natural reservoir for the rabies virus it was found essential to maintain infected animals in captivity under controlled laboratory conditions for extensive periods of time. Of the species naturally infected with rabies virus that are known to occur in the United States (Dasypterus floridanus, Lasiurus cinereus, L. seminolus, L. borealis, Myotis austroriparius, M. velifer, M. californicus, Eptesicus fuscus, Antrozous pallidus and Tadarida brasiliensis [mexicana and cynocephela] only the immensely gregarious Mexican free-tailed bat, Tadarida b. mexicana, was readily available to us for laboratory study. This is a very sturdy species capable of withstanding considerable experimental trauma although its reluctance to accept food in capitivity foiled early attempts to keep it alive and healthy. Several investigators (Gates, 1936, 1938; Ramage, 1947; Constantine, 1952...Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
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