Home First record of East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat (Coelops frithii) from Nepal and extension of its global range
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

First record of East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat (Coelops frithii) from Nepal and extension of its global range

Published/Copyright: April 22, 2022
Mammalia
From the journal Mammalia Volume 86 Issue 5

Abstract

We captured a male individual of Coelops frithii during a cave survey in the Makawanpur District of central Nepal on March 3, 2021. A colony with 15 individuals of this species was found roosting in a narrow and moist cavity of the Sarasawati cave situated in Raksirang Rural Municipality. The species was identified by its small size and characteristic funnel shaped ears with large antitragus at the base of posterior end of ear pinna and externally invisible and nodular tail. This is the first record of the genus Coelops for Nepal and western most record of the species.

Keywords: cave; distribution; East Asia; Hipposideridae; roost
Corresponding author: Dibya Raj Dahal, Central Department of Zoology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Kirtipur Baghmati 44600, Nepal; Sukuna Multiple Campus, Sunderharaincha, Morang, Nepal; and Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation, Balkhu, Kathmandu, Nepal, E-mail:

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

  4. Research ethics: This field survey was conducted after the permission from division of forest and soil conservation, ministry of forest and soil conservation, Government of Nepal (permission number 132; date of issue: 8th December 2020). We wore surgical facemask and gloves during the time of survey. Bats were captured by soft gloved loose hands without any stress and kept for half an hour in loose cotton bags. Photographs and morphometric measurements were taken without any stress and all captured individuals were released immediately at the entrance of the cave.

References

Abd Rahman, M.R., Achmadi, A.S., Chaya, R., and Tingga, T. (2010). A new distributional record of the rare bat Coelops robinsoni from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. J. Trop. Biodiv. Conserv. 7: 87–92.Search in Google Scholar

Acharya, P.R., Adhikari, H., Dahal, S., Thapa, A., and Thapa, S. (2010). Bats of Nepal. A field guide, 1st ed. Kathmandu: Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundations (SMCRF).Search in Google Scholar

Bates, P.J.J. and Harrison, D.L. (1997). Bats of the Indian Subcontinent. Sevenoaks: Harrison Zoological Museum Publication.Search in Google Scholar

Furey, N.M., Mackie, I.J., and Racey, P.A. (2010). Bat diversity in Vietnamese limestone karst areas and the implications of forest degradation. Biodivers. Conserv. 19: 1821–1838. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9806-0.Search in Google Scholar

Hill, J.E. (1967). The Gunong Benom expedition 1967. London: British Museum (Natural History).Search in Google Scholar

Ho, Y.Y., Fang, Y.P., Chou, C.H., Cheng, H.C., and Chang, H.W. (2013). High duty cycle to low duty cycle: echolocation behaviour of the hipposiderid bat Coelops frithii. PLoS One 8: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062938.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

Huang, J.C., Abdullah, N.I., Elias, N., Anuar, S., Sah, M., and Lim, L. (2019a). The first record of Coelops frithii (Blyth, 1848) to Penang, Malaysia, with a note of the potential acoustic plasticity of the species. Bat Res. Conserv. 12: 21–26.10.14709/BarbJ.12.1.2019.03Search in Google Scholar

Huang, J.C., Thong, V.D., and Ho, Y. (2019b). Coelops frithii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T5074A22030377.Search in Google Scholar

Lim, L., Struebig, M.J., Zalipah, M.N., Mohd-adnan, A., Zubaid, A., Anuar, S., Sah, M., and Rossiter, S.J. (2019). Bats from the understorey of lowland tropical rainforests across Peninsular Malaysia. J. Bat Res. Conserv. 12: 68–82.10.14709/BarbJ.12.1.2019.10Search in Google Scholar

Molur, S., Marimuthu, G., Srinivasulu, C., Mistry, S., Hutson, A.M., Bates, P.J.J., Walker, S., Priya, K.P., and Priya, A.R.B. (2002). Status of South Asian Chiroptera conservation assessment and management plan (C.A.M.P.) workshop report, 2002. Coimbatore: Zoo Outreach Organisation, CBSG South Asia and WILD.Search in Google Scholar

Saha, A., Vogt, K., Feeroz, M.M., and Hasan, M.K. (2022). A re-discovery of Coelops frithii (Chiroptera, Hipposideridae) from its type locality after one and a half century. Mammalia, 86: 271–275. https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0092.Search in Google Scholar

Sinha, Y.P. (1999). Contribution to the knowledge of bats (mammalia: Chiroptera) of North East Hills, India. Calcutta, Occas: Zoological Survey of India, pap. 174, i-iv + 1-52.Search in Google Scholar

Srinivasulu, C., Srinivasulu, B., and Srinivasulu, A. (2020). Hipposideros pomona. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020, e.T180990825A180990948.Search in Google Scholar

Thong, V.D. (2016). Morphological and acoustic identification of hipposiderids (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) from Xuan Son national park, Northeastern Vietnam. Acad. J. Biol. 38: 298–303. https://doi.org/10.15625/0866-7160/v38n3.8351.Search in Google Scholar

Yuzefovich, A.P., Artyushin, L.V., and Kruskop, S.V. (2021). Not the cryptic species: diversity of Hipposideros gentilis (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) in Indochina. Diversity 13: 218. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13050218.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, L., Jones, G., Zhang, J., Zhu, G., Parsons, S., Rossiter, S.J., and Zhang, S. (2009). Recent surveys of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from China. I. Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae. Acta Chiropterol. 11: 71–88. https://doi.org/10.3161/150811009x465703.Search in Google Scholar
Received: 2021-05-07
Accepted: 2022-02-15
Published Online: 2022-04-22
Published in Print: 2022-09-27

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Conservation
  3. Reviewing the status and demise of the Endangered Eld’s deer and identifying priority sites and conservation actions in Cambodia
  4. Ecology
  5. Status, abundance, and food habit of Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) in tropical deciduous forest of Central India
  6. First record of a giant muntjac Muntiacus vuquangensis (Cervidae) from Cambodia
  7. First sighting record of the elusive Nilgiri Marten Martes gwatkinsii in Wayanad, Southern Western Ghats, India
  8. Status and ecology of forest ungulates in the Dja Faunal Reserve, Cameroon
  9. Response of small mammal species to landscape metrics in a highly fragmented area in the Atlantic forest of southern Brazil
  10. Agamid lizard predation by Macaca sinica (toque macaque) in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
  11. Notes on the life history of Centurio senex (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from northern Central America
  12. Movements of three mormoopid bat species (Chiroptera, Mormoopidae) among three underground roosts in southeastern Mexico
  13. Landscape patterns in the occupancy of jaguars (Panthera onca) and their primary prey species in a disturbed region of the Selva Maya in Mexico
  14. Predation of Indian giant flying squirrel and Travancore flying squirrel in the Western Ghats, India
  15. Evolutionary Biology
  16. First record of polydactyly for a European bat, Myotis daubentonii (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
  17. Biogeography
  18. Puma concolor potential distribution and connectivity in the Colombian Llanos
  19. First photographic record of sambar (Rusa unicolor) from Sikkim, Central Himalayas biotic province
  20. First record of East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat (Coelops frithii) from Nepal and extension of its global range
  21. Ethology
  22. Bats can migrate farther than it was previously known: a new longest migration record by Nathusius’ pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)
  23. Taxonomy/Phylogeny
  24. Disentangling the taxonomic status of Ctenomys (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae) populations inhabiting northern areas of La Rioja Province, Argentina
  25. Replacement name (nomen novum) for Rhinolophus monticolus Soisook et al., 2016
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0075
Keywords for this article
cave; distribution; East Asia; Hipposideridae; roost

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Conservation
  3. Reviewing the status and demise of the Endangered Eld’s deer and identifying priority sites and conservation actions in Cambodia
  4. Ecology
  5. Status, abundance, and food habit of Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) in tropical deciduous forest of Central India
  6. First record of a giant muntjac Muntiacus vuquangensis (Cervidae) from Cambodia
  7. First sighting record of the elusive Nilgiri Marten Martes gwatkinsii in Wayanad, Southern Western Ghats, India
  8. Status and ecology of forest ungulates in the Dja Faunal Reserve, Cameroon
  9. Response of small mammal species to landscape metrics in a highly fragmented area in the Atlantic forest of southern Brazil
  10. Agamid lizard predation by Macaca sinica (toque macaque) in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
  11. Notes on the life history of Centurio senex (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from northern Central America
  12. Movements of three mormoopid bat species (Chiroptera, Mormoopidae) among three underground roosts in southeastern Mexico
  13. Landscape patterns in the occupancy of jaguars (Panthera onca) and their primary prey species in a disturbed region of the Selva Maya in Mexico
  14. Predation of Indian giant flying squirrel and Travancore flying squirrel in the Western Ghats, India
  15. Evolutionary Biology
  16. First record of polydactyly for a European bat, Myotis daubentonii (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
  17. Biogeography
  18. Puma concolor potential distribution and connectivity in the Colombian Llanos
  19. First photographic record of sambar (Rusa unicolor) from Sikkim, Central Himalayas biotic province
  20. First record of East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat (Coelops frithii) from Nepal and extension of its global range
  21. Ethology
  22. Bats can migrate farther than it was previously known: a new longest migration record by Nathusius’ pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)
  23. Taxonomy/Phylogeny
  24. Disentangling the taxonomic status of Ctenomys (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae) populations inhabiting northern areas of La Rioja Province, Argentina
  25. Replacement name (nomen novum) for Rhinolophus monticolus Soisook et al., 2016
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 10.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0075/html?fbclid=IwAR1NTAAXMtHwA7OVVraMBp92Cxe-5fwQaIgYEwCyWT4BjeZsOHDMnsEHKqI&srsltid=AfmBOopisgbjidXbUuKEDJLN1ANFV056laxeSazmmsPYkxd7EvoerRTl
Scroll to top button