Tomb Bat

Theobald’s Tomb Bat has been rediscovered in the Western Ghats (India). Not sure why they are saying it was thought extinct, as I see prior articles mention it from the region, but it is a rare species. (News source.)

Squirrel vs Fruit Bat

Odd behavior noted by a biologist in Tanzania: a squirrel attacked a fruit bat. (News source.)

NZ "Walking Bat" Had Australian Kin

Scientists thought the agile walking/climbing abilities of the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat, Mystacina tuberculata, was the result of isolation on an island without mammalian competitors, but a fossil bat from Australia shows it also had similar muscle/bone adaptations. (Eurekalert.)

Old Specimens are New Species

Two old museum specimen of Samoan bats have turned out to be undescribed species, probably now extinct. (News source.) Download AMNH paper here. (Via Kevin Stewart.)

Bat News

The extraordinary nose of the paradoxolophus bat allows for a highly focused sonar emission. (Eurekalert.)

Robotic bats are being created (with numerous potential uses). (News source.)

New Bat in Comoros

A new small bat, named Miniopterus aelleni, has been discovered in the Comoros. (News source.)

New Horseshoe Bat

A new horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus) has been described from China. (Abstract here.)

Name a Species Auctions

Purdue has a bat for naming-rights auction, and will have some turtles up soon, also. (News source.)

Two New Small Mammals

A new bat (Mormopterus francoismoutoui) and elephant shrew (Elephantulus pilicaudus) have been described in Journal of Mammalogy. Via Kevin Stewart, the abstracts are as follows:

Specific Status of Populations in the Mascarene Islands
Referred to Mormopterus Acetabulosus (Chiroptera: Molossidae),
with Description of a New Species

S. M. Goodman, B. Jansen Van Vuuren, F. Ratrimomanarivo, J.-M. Probst, and R. C. K. Bowie
Journal of Mammalogy, 89(5):1316–1327, 2008

On the basis of molecular and morphological evidence, Mormopterus acetabulosus, hitherto considered an endemic to the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and La Réunion), is shown to comprise 2 closely related taxa. The holotype of M. acetabulosus is from Mauritius and the new taxon described herein is from La Réunion. M. acetabulosus from Mauritius is notably larger than members of this genus from La Réunion, and several soft-part and cranial characters distinguish these 2 taxa. This conclusion is supported by examination of mitochondrial DNA control region data for 141 bats, which shows these 2 groups to be reciprocally monophyletic, separated by an average of 5.01% uncorrected sequence divergence. Two nuclear intron regions (7th intron of the beta fibrinogen gene and thyrotropin) also were included, but showed limited genetic variation and no fixed differences between the 2 taxa. These 2 species of Mormopterus are common on Mauritius and La Réunion, often living in caves or synanthropically, and are not considered a conservation concern.

A New Species of Elephant-Shrew (Afrotheria: Macroscelidea:
Elephantulus) from South Africa

H. A. Smit, T. J. Robinson, J. Watson, and B. Jansen Van Vuuren
Journal of Mammalogy, 89(5):1257–1269, 2008

Elephant-shrews (also called sengis, order Macroscelidea) are small-bodied insectivorous mammals with a strictly African distribution. Fifteen species currently are recognized, of which 9 occur in the southern African subregion. On the basis of molecular, cytogenetic, and morphological evidence, Elephantulus edwardii, the only strictly South African endemic species, is shown to comprise 2 closely related taxa. The new Elephantulus taxon described herein is from the central Nama-Karoo region of Western Cape and Northern Cape Provinces. Important genetic distinctions underpin its delimitation. Sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene and the hypervariable control region as well as 7th intron of the nuclear fibrinogen gene show these 2 taxa to be reciprocally monophyletic. They are separated by 13.8% sequence divergence (uncorrected) based on the 2 mitochondrial segments, and 4.2% based on the nuclear intron sequences. In addition, fixed cytogenetic differences include a centromeric shift, heterochromatic differences on autosomal pairs 1–6, and the number of nucleolar organizer regions. The new species has several subtle morphological and phenotypic characters that distinguish it from its sibling species E. edwardii, the most striking of which is the presence of a tail-tuft, as well as the color of the flanks and the ventral pelage. The abundance, detailed distribution of the new form, and its life-history characteristics are not known, and further studies clearly are needed to determine its conservation status.

New Bat

From Zootaxa (September 2008), a new species of freetail bat from Australia has been described as Mormopterus eleryi.

Bat "Discos"

Bats will be singing and swarming, and researchers are at the ready... (News source.)

Bat Disease Spreading

White-nose syndrome continues to kill bats in New York and Vermont. Not much is known aboudt the disease, including whether humans (particularly cavers) are helping to spread it or if it is a potential health hazard to humans. (News source.)

Bumblebee Bats

A villager in eastern Thailand captured some strange bats, found in a rolled up banana leaf. They turned out to be the smallest bat species, the rare bumblebee bats. (News source.)

[Correction: Darren Naish points out that these are not bumblebee bats, but painted bats (Kerivoula picta).]

New (Previously Ethnoknown) Flying Fox

A new fruit bat was discovered on Mindoro Island in February 2006. From the Philippines:

[Dr. Mundita] "Lim said a team from the Comparative Biogeography and Conservation of Philippine Vertebrates (CBCPV) project conducted an expedition in Mindoro Occidental early last year that led to the discovery of the new fruit bat species, which has been named as the 'Mindoro Stripe-Faced Fruitbat' for its striking facial features and the island on which it was found.
"'A local resident of Sablayan first described the flying fox in great detail to us, but we were unconvinced until the species showed up in our nets,' said CBCPV mammologist Jake Esselstyn." ...
"The scientific description of the new species, Styloctenium mindorensis, was published last week in the Journal of Mammalogy." ...
"'The bat is very colorful; most of its hair is orange and it sports three white stripes on its face as well as a black beard, which distinguishes it from all other known fruit bats,' she said." ...
"The new flying fox is known to be only from Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro but the CBCPV team is hopeful that the bat will be found in other areas of the province.
"Another bat species from Mindoro is under study by CBCPV team members and is thought to be new to science as well, Lim revealed."

Giant Noctule Bat Eats Migrating Birds

Interesting behavior in a European bat. From Eurekalert:

"It was until now believed that nocturnally migrating songbirds, while venturing into the unfamiliar night sky for accomplishing their long, challenging trans-continental migrations, could at least release anti-predator vigilance thanks to the concealment of darkness. A new study by Spanish and Swiss scientists – published this week in PLoS ONE – shows that migration at night is not without predation risk for passerines. A unique creature is indeed capable of exploiting the formidable food source represented by the billions of high-flying, Eurasian songbirds which engage twice a year into long-distance, north-south or south-north nocturnal movements. The danger seems especially acute where birds' flight routes converge around the Mediterranean basin, such as the Iberian Peninsula. This newly recognized hazard adds to the numerous obstacles that sea and desert crossings already represent for fragile migratory passerines. Actually, the newly uncovered danger comes from the deep black sky, in the form of a 45 cm wing-spanned aerial-hawking mammal, equipped with sharp canines and an efficient radar system which remains probably largely inaudible to songbirds.
"In 2001, Carlos Ibáñez and his colleagues at the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, suggested that the giant noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus), a rare European species occurring principally in the Mediterranean, may feed to a large extent on birds (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98, 9700-9702). They had found numerous feathers in the faeces of Spanish giant noctules, with occurrence peaks in the diet in spring and autumn, i.e. during main songbirds' seasonal migration. This contrasted strikingly with food composition of other European bat species which all feed exclusively on invertebrates!
"This finding brought about a heated controversy among bat scientists. Some claimed that eating feathers was no proof of preying upon birds: they suggested that giant noctules could simply, and accidentally, ingest feathers hovering in the air, which are particularly numerous during migration events. According to the detractors of a bird-based diet, eating feathers could thus be a classical consequence of a bats' echolocation system which hampers fine-grained discrimination of targets (therefore a confusion between insect prey and feathers); also, the costs of swallowing feathers which are casually encountered would be lower than spitting them away (Bontadina & Arlettaz, 2003 Functional Ecology 17, 141-142).
"In the case of giant noctule bats, it was for sure the description by Ibañez et al. (2001) of a so far totally unrecognized, outstanding predator-prey relationship that triggered so much initial scepticism. As usual, a new major and amazing discovery generates a lot of sceptical reactions, which calls for gathering further, indisputable scientific evidence. Indeed, presence of feathers in diet was no ultimate demonstration of a bird-based diet, although indicative. New innovative approaches were thus necessary for proving the case. But how to study the foraging habits of an elusive predator that chases its favourite prey several hundreds if not thousands of metres above the ground in total darkness?
"To elucidate the mysterious habits of giant noctule bats, an ambitious investigation led by young scientist Ana Popa-Lisseanu, under Prof. Ibañez' supervision, was launched by Spanish research teams based in Sevilla (Doñana Biological Station) and Granada (Zaidín Experimental Station) thanks to funding from the Spanish Environmental Ministry. The programme was soon joined by one of their once most virulent Swiss detractors (Prof. Raphaël Arlettaz, University of Bern and Swiss Ornithological Institute). The technique of stable isotopes was applied because this recently developed method allows tracking species' main dietary specializations and trophic level position along food chains. The researchers concentrated on carbon and nitrogen isotopes, which are among the best dietary tracers. They analysed their concentrations in bats' blood throughout the year, predicting major seasonal shifts in isotopic signatures towards bird prey in spring and, especially, during autumn. In parallel, isotopic signatures of whole insect bodies and passerine muscular tissues were tracked throughout the year, serving as a control. The results elegantly showed that the bats ate only insects in summer, included some songbirds' flesh in their diet during spring, and depended a great deal on passerines during autumn. Moreover, a higher fraction of songbirds' flesh in autumn than in spring was attributed to the more massive passerine migration in autumn, because both parents and offspring migrate then towards their wintering grounds in Africa, whereas in spring only birds having survived winter mortality return to their breeding area. In addition, young birds in autumn may represent naïve, inexperienced, i.e. more vulnerable prey.
"The ability of giant noctules to prey on the wing upon nocturnally migrating passerines appears unique not only among bats but also within the whole animal kingdom. Although carnivorous bats feeding on small-sized vertebrates are not rare, they all live in the Tropics and collect their prey from substrates. The few species of falcons which capture migratory birds along the Mediterranean and African coasts are exclusively diurnal. Finally, owls, as typical night-active predators, never forage in the open space: moving prey is detected from substrates through passive-listening of rustling noises.
"The unique ecological niche of the giant noctule may in turn explain some of its peculiar natural history traits. First, the species occurs almost exclusively in some restricted parts of the Mediterranean where major streams of migrating birds congregate. Second, it is among the largest Palaeartic bats and even belongs to the heaviest aerial-hunting bats of the world. A large body mass (up to 50 g for 45 cm wingspan) is probably a prerequisite for subduing prey items as large as passerines, which have approximately the same weight as other European bat species.
"The extraordinary predatory specialization of the giant noctule may be shared by the few other big aerial-hawking bat species which exist elsewhere in the world. Are some of them similarly stalking unwary songbirds during their massive nocturnal passes? The foraging habits of these rare bats still remain quite mysterious, like in the case of giant noctules until recently. Stable isotopes could be a promising tool for unravelling their furtive ecology.
"For now, Eurasian songbirds should mind not only the Mediterranean Sea and the immensity of the Saharan desert, with their harsh winds and storms, when engaging into their transcontinental journeys at night; the forces of a skilled, almost silent nocturnal hunter patrolling the infinite dark space await them..."