Osmania University researchers find critically endangered species of bat

Cantor’s bat is found in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

A team of zoologists at Osmania University have rediscovered the critically endangered Kolar roundleaf bat, a rare bat species, from Therahalli village in Kolar district of neighbouring Karnataka. C Srinivasulu, Zoologist, OU Centre of Biodiversity and Conservation studies, said it was critically endangered bat in India that was known to have been found only from Hanumanhalli Betta in Mulbagal area.

“A spectrogram had shown echolocation calls typical of Kolar roundleaf bat along with the calls typical of Cantor’s roundleaf bat,” he said. Cantor’s bat is found in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

He further said that the Kolar roundleaf bat was chanced upon in 1994 during accidental collection of bats for screening virus loads among bats in India.

“This species was wrongly identified and later found to be an undescribed species. A scientific description was provided in 1994 and a research paper mentioned that the species was found only in two places—Hanumanhalli Betta and Therahalli,” he said.

A team of bat researchers from OU took up a study in mid-2014. “We have confirmed that the species exists and was known to exist only in Hanumanahalli. We did not detect its presence in Therahalli. In the last seven years, we have been regularly conducting surveys at both the places and we failed to detect the presence of the species at Therahalli,” he said.

Osmania University (OU) is a non-profit institution founded in 1918 by Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, seventh and the last Nizam of Hyderabad. The university is affiliated with the University Grants Commission (UGC) and has received accreditation from the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has re-accredited it as A+ Grade Institution.

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