Austronomus australis
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The white-striped free-tailed bat (Austronomus australis) is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. Its echolocation calls are audible to humans, which is a characteristic found in only a few microbat species. The species was formerly classified as Tadarida australis.
The first description of the species was published in 1838 by John Edward Gray, in a review of material at the British Museum of Natural History. The author noted the source of the specimen, a skin and skull, as New South Wales and placed it with the genus Molossus. When providing a description in Furred Animals of Australia, Ellis Troughton suggested that the specimen examined by Gray was obtained at Camden, a property owned by John Macarthur. Troughton first proposed the species be distinguished as a monotypic genus Austronomus, this arrangement was eventually resurrected when the taxon was separated from the previously accepted placement in the widespread genus Tadarida.
Koopman included these species in Tadarida with T. kuboriensis as a subspecies of T. australis. Gregorin and Cirranello found that these two species formed a clade distinct from other Tadarida, differing in eight morphological characters... Wikipedia →
Recording0:15
Australia · 2026
© Mononymous · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:33
Australia · 2025
© Tricia Stewart · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:15
Australia · 2023
© Ry Beaver · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-striped Free-tailed Bat sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 17th most-seen of the 22 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-striped Free-tailed Bat in Melbourne on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-striped Free-tailed Bat sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
Only Melbourne, in our data
Melbourne is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate White-striped Free-tailed Bat sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-striped Free-tailed Bat is recorded against all the mammals logged in Melbourne (12 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
