A note on bat faunal assessment in Karuna bat cave, Baglung, Nepal
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Prabhat Kiran Bhattarai
,
Basant Sharma
,
Sandip Ghimire
Abstract
In 2019, we surveyed the Karuna bat cave during spring and autumn seasons and recorded two species of fruit bats; Rousettus leschenaultii and Eonycteris spelaea, and two species of insectivorous bats; Hipposideros armiger and Rhinolophus macrotis. Although there was no variation in colony size of insectivorous bats, the fruit bat population (around 38,000 individuals) was only recorded in autumn which indicated seasonal migration. Occasional killing of bats, unsustainable guano extraction, and tourism development threaten this major cave for bats in Nepal. The study recommends prioritizing scientific research and bat friendly cave conservation actions.
Funding source: Badigad Rural Muniipality
Acknowledgements
We thank Karuna bat cave management committee and Badigad Rural Municipality for permission and support to conduct this research. We also thank Bat Friends Pokhara for providing research equipment. Special thanks to Jeevan Pandey and local residents for assisting in the field.
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Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: This research was conducted with the financial support from Badigad Rural Municipality.
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Research ethics: Bats were carefully captured and released shortly with no harm to the animal. Gloves and bat bags were used. Some aggressive individuals were released soon after removing from the nets. We followed 2016 guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research and education to ensure the safety of bats. The research was carried out with the permission from local authority.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Obituary
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- Ecology
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- Camera trapping arboreal mammals in Argentina’s Atlantic Forest
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- Evolutionary Biology
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- A geometric morphometric analysis of geographic variation in the Cape Short-eared gerbil, Desmodillus auricularis (Rodentia: Gerbillinae)
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Obituary
- François Catzeflis (1953–2021)
- Ecology
- Hunting and water scarcity affect habitat occupancy by peccaries (Tayassu pecari and Pecari tajacu) in Calakmul, Mexico
- Camera trapping arboreal mammals in Argentina’s Atlantic Forest
- Activity patterns and burrowing ecology of the giant pouched rat (Cricetomys emini) in Tshuapa Province, D. R. Congo
- Is resource partitioning between two sympatric species of Gracilinanus (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) related to trophic and spatial niches?
- Gone before it’s known? Camera-trapping shows alarming levels of putative hybrids in the wildcat (Felis silvestris) population of the Gargano National Park (Southern Italy)
- A note on bat faunal assessment in Karuna bat cave, Baglung, Nepal
- Long-distance dispersal of two species of shrews (Sorex caecutiens Laxmann, 1788 and Sorex minutus Linnaeus, 1766)
- Conservation
- A new threat for the rarest neotropical carnivore: the vulnerable Colombian weasel, Neogale felipei
- Evolutionary Biology
- Assessment of craniometric sexual dimorphism and ontogenetic variation in invasive Rattus norvegicus and R. rattus from urban and peri-urban areas of Gauteng Province, South Africa
- A geometric morphometric analysis of geographic variation in the Cape Short-eared gerbil, Desmodillus auricularis (Rodentia: Gerbillinae)
- Taxonomy/Phylogeny
- Cephalic shield morphology as species diagnostic trait and individual natural mark in three-banded armadillos (Tolypeutes; Cingulata: Chlamyphoridae)
- Annotations on the taxonomy of the opossums (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) of Honduras
- Clarifying the taxonomic status of Crocidura cantabra Cabrera, 1908 (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae: Crocidurinae)
