Bat species found in Brazil after another 100 years

Researchers in Palmas (PR) found a bat of this type Alien HistiotusWho has not been seen or photographed since 1916. He was captured in 2018 in a protection unit in the city of Paraná.

According to the UOLThe specimen was captured by members of the project “Mammal Reserve of Campos de Palmas Wildlife and Campos Gerais National Park”. The municipality has a population of 52 thousand people and is located in the southwest of Paraná, 370 km from Curitiba.

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“100 year old bat”

• Until then, only one English naturalist had been lucky enough to take a photo and see the animal;
• He did so in Joinville (SC) and took the animal to London (England);
• The specimen is only 12 cm long;
• Two differences between it and other bat species are smaller ears and an additional membrane;
• The authors of the research point out that this species is seriously threatened with extinction, as the areas in which it lives, such as native fields and araucaria forests, are small and scattered, making its development difficult, in addition to its conversion to pastures and agricultural monocultures. Fields and planting of pine and eucalyptus.

“It is a very important result. The original description of 1916 was limited to very little information, as was usual at the time,” Liliani Maria Tiepolo, a professor at the UFD and project coordinator, said in an interview with The Sun. Sciences of the Union of Popular Democratic Forces.

If the English naturalist had kept the animal in Brazil, its species might have been rediscovered at an earlier time. To prove that it was Alien HistiotusThe researchers compared the recovered bats with a representation of the species found in England.

Geographic, financial and linguistic barriers make visiting museums infeasible for many researchers, as the majority of visits are museum-related. Grant [financiamentos]. Perhaps if the holotype had been present in Brazil, this species could have been rediscovered sooner.

Vinicius Claudio, researcher at Fiocruz

We still have a lot to investigate. It may be a naturally rare species. It may be a species that has suffered greatly from the devastation of the Atlantic Forest, both past and present. Or it may be a species that is difficult to collect using traditional techniques.

Liliani Maria Tiepolo, professor at UFPR and project coordinator, in an interview with Sciences of the Union of Popular Democratic Forces

The study was published this year in ZooKeys.