8.5x11" archival giclee print, in a limited edition of 50, numbered, titled and signed in graphite on the bottom of the image. A portion goes to organizations that preserve the remaining pine rocklands in Miami Dade County, home of this species! (In the past this has gone to the Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition, and the Tropical Audubon Society.)
 
The Florida bonneted bat is considered the most endangered mammal in North America, surviving up until recently in the roofs of houses in Miami. Zoo Miami now puts up bat houses that are specially tailored to their needs. It is thought that these bats once lived in the cavities made by an environmental engineer species, the red cockaded woodpecker. The woodpecker, which is an endangered species that can still be found in Central and North Florida, may have been extripated sometime in the last century as Miami was being built, causing the bats to adapt to spanish-style shingled roofs instead. It's amazing they are still around! References for this painting come from this film by Into Nature Films and this image by the Merlin Tuttle Bat Conservation 
 
This piece is part of my ongoing project to illustrate plants and animals of the globally imperilled pine rocklands, a habitat found only in a small range in South Florida and neighboring Carribean islands, home to many unique and endangered species. I hope this leads to better protection for that habitat!