MYOTIS HAYESI 2022

This new species of bat was discovered from a single specimen found in a garden in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, in the year 2000. A member of the mouse-eared bat family (Myotis), Hayes’ thick-thumbed myotis was named after the Scottish conservation and bat expert Ben Hayes.

The specimen spent two decades in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum before researchers Gábor Csorba and Neil Furey identifed it as a new species. As well as its distinctive feshy thumbs, it has large, smooth soles on its hind feet and a diferently shaped skull from other bats in its family.

With just a single specimen having been recorded, the researchers suggest the species should be listed as Data Defcient on the IUCN Red List. But they are concerned about its current status and future survival as Phnom Penh has become more built up and local wetlands and green spaces have been lost in the past two decades.

“This is a specimen from a greener time,” said Csorba. “While we think it is unlikely that the species has become extinct, it is possible that it no longer fies over the city streets and private gardens where the only specimen was originally collected. That is a sobering thought and one that should focus minds on protecting the shrinking habitats that underpin biodiversity in Cambodia.”

Csorba, G. and Furey, N.M. (2022)

From greener times: A new species of thick-thumbed Myotis from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae: An International Journal of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology 68(1): 85-97. doi.org/10.17109/AZH.68.1.85.2022