habitat_narrative
Terrestrial
In southern Africa, Peak-saddle Horseshoe Bats occur in savannah woodlands and are dependent on the availability of daylight roosting sites such as caves, mine adits or boulder piles (Skinner & Chimimba 2005). They are not always present in cave sites, which suggests that are partially migratory (Rautenbach 1982), but see Hutterer et al. (2005). Within the assessment region, the species is recorded from dolimitic geology and occurs in the Mopane Bioregion, Central Bushveld, Mesic Highveld Grassland.They occur in groups of no more than three or four (Rautenbach 1982; Monadjem 2005; Skinner & Chimimba 2005). In Swaziland, they shared a roost (an abandoned gold mine) with several other bat species, including the numerically dominant R. clivosus (Monadjem 2005). It is a clutter forager and aerially hawks and gleans insect prey (Siemers & Ivanova 2004). Its diet consists mainly of Lepidoptera (Schoeman 2006).
This species is similar in size and appearance to several other species (R. simulator, R. landeri and R. darlingi) but can be separated from these by the high-rising, sharply pointed connecting process and the absence of axillary tufts of hair in the armpit (Monadjem et al. 2010).
