Volume 88, Issue 3

When the book Wild mammals of Myanmar (Tun Yin 1993) was published, a total of 252 mammal species were reported. Since that publication, numerous new species have been described, taxonomic revisions published, and additional distribution records produced that have expanded Myanmar’s mammals considerably. Therefore, we aimed to provide an updated checklist of the mammals of Myanmar, which includes the scientific and common names, global and Myanmar distributions, remarks on taxonomy, and conservation information including the IUCN Red List status and legal protection status under The Conservation of Biodiversity and Protected Areas Law 2018 of Myanmar. Our new checklist includes 365 (33 marine and 332 terrestrial) mammal species belonging to 13 orders and 49 families. We also confirmed that Myanmar is home to at least nine endemic mammal species. Our results highlight the areas that require further exploration to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Myanmar’s diverse fauna.

New records are provided for two species of bat from Argentina belonging to the family Vespertilionidae, Histiotus montanus and the recently described Neoeptesicus ulapesensis . These data extend the range of both species incorporating them into two new provinces. One record comes from the revision of a specimen deposited in the Colección Mamíferos Lillo for more than six decades, highlighting the importance of biological collections for studying the systematics and distribution of species.

Peropteryx pallidoptera is the newest described species of Peropteryx , know from only few localities in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia. Herein, we report new records of this species, and we show that P . pallidoptera has a wider distribution than known across the Amazon. Our records are based on field sampling and, mostly, on museum vouchers, which reinforces the importance of biological collections and the need to continually review deposited specimens.

Peropteryx leucoptera is a widespread species in the Neotropics but with a disjunct distribution in Northern South America and a separated population in the Atlantic Forest of Northeastern Brazil. Here we present new records of this species for Northeastern Brazil, the first records for the Caatinga biome and for the states of Bahia and Rondônia. These new records represent a major range extension and establishes a new southern limit of occurrence for the species. We also examined and provide measurements of other specimens and present an updated map with the distribution of P. leucoptera in South America.

The Complejo Volcánico Doña Juana – Cascabel National Natural Park is located between the departments of Cauca and Nariño in the southern Andean Region of Colombia. Due to the country’s social challenges and the difficult access to the Doña Juana – Cascabel National Natural Park the biological knowledge concerning groups such as mammals, is based on studies prior to the park’s declaration, reports from park rangers and residents. Between October 2017 and February 2018, eight trail cameras were set up in the Doña Juana – Cascabel National Natural Park and its buffer zone. We reviewed the information captured in these cameras and identified eight mammal species, three of which are new reports for the park. In total, 24 species were reported, including charismatic Andean species such as the spectacled bear ( Tremarctos ornatus ), and the Andean tapir ( Tapirus pinchaque ). The mammal diversity documented for the park is low (24 species) compared to other Andean areas. Further field work is necessary to complete the species inventories. Nevertheless, this research, to our knowledge is the first effort to study the medium and large mammals of the Doña Juana – Cascabel National Natural Park since its establishment in 2008.

To investigate whether trees and palms scattered in pastures contribute to the maintenance of bat assemblages in landscapes highly fragmented by livestock farming activities, we evaluated the bat assemblages and foraging guilds between wooded pastures and riparian vegetation. Using mist nets, we captured 1013 bats from 29 species and four taxonomic families. We found that the abundance, richness, and composition of bat species were not significantly different between vegetation types. Frugivores were the most abundant guild, and their abundance did not differ between vegetation types, indicating that wood-pastures allow the presence of these bats in the landscape. On the other hand, insectivores were more abundant in riparian vegetation and, interestingly, nectarivores were more abundant in pastures, likely due to the great plasticity of species of the genus Glossophaga . Our results are encouraging, since they demonstrate that a rustic pasture management that promoting the presence of scattered trees and palms along with belts of riparian vegetation, allows the maintenance of bat assemblages in a highly fragmented landscape.

Placentophagia is a natural behaviour in mammals. Although placentophagia has been reported from 18 species of bats so far, the instance from the wild are infrequent. Rousettus leschenaultii is a widely distributed species across South and Southeast Asia, and is consistently described as a common species throughout its range. However, the ecology of this species is poorly known according to the latest IUCN assessment. Through this note, we provide the first recorded instance of placentophagia and birth-associated behaviours of this species in the wild.

The monophyletic Afro-Palaearctic clade of the horseshoe bats ( Rhinolophus ) comprises several species groups whose representatives can be morphologically similar to each other across groups. The only Rhinolophus species that occurs in Lesotho was traditionally attributed to the broadly distributed African desert- and savanna-dwelling bat, Rhinolophus clivosus , a member of the ferrumequinum group. In this study, we investigated the horseshoe bats from Lesotho with the help of molecular genetic and morphometric analyses to find their position within the group and the clade as well. The genetic analysis resulted in phylogenetic trees with two different topologies, although in both trees the Lesotho bats were a part of the fumigatus group instead of the ferrumequinum group. In the mitochondrial tree, the Lesotho bats were mixed with Rhinolophus damarensis. On the contrary, the Lesotho bats formed a single distinct lineage on the nuclear tree, closely related to Rhinolophus darlingi , R. fumigatus , and R. damarensis (in a single lineage each). These results indicate introgressions of mtDNA from the Lesotho bats to R. damarensis . Morphologically, the Lesotho bats grouped distinctly from other species of the fumigatus and ferrumequinum groups. We thus consider the Lesotho horseshoe bats to be a new separate species that is here described.

The Andean swamp rat Neotomys ebriosus is a sigmodontine rodent restricted to the Central Andes of South America. A distribution map of the species in Peru have been previously drawn based on few of the localities where the species has been captured and collected. I update the distribution of the species in Peru based on new records from three different areas surveyed by the author, specimens at Museum collections in the United States and France from VertNet webpage, localities from the collection at the Natural History Museum of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, and localities from the collection at the Natural History Museum of the Universidad Nacional San Agustín. The northern limit of the species distribution is increased based on new localities with collected individuals. Habitat used by N. ebriosus is mainly high Andean bogs; most individuals caught adjacent to the borders of Andean bogs and along streams near the bogs. Collected individuals leave unclear subspecies division and identity.