Bat Monitoring in Tanahun District, Western Nepal Rameshwor Ghimire1, 2, Sudeep Acharya1, 2 and Sanjan Thapa1* Abstract We carried out three days bat monitoring survey in Tanahun distict, Western Nepal from 12th to 14th March, 2010 with an objective to update the recent information on the chiropteran species diversity, population and distribution in western Nepal. We deployed mist netting and roost survey and recorded nine species which were belonged to common status. Unfortunately, Ia io, reported earlier from this locality which is Critically Endangered nationally could not be retrieved. We suggest that a detailed monitoring study has to be undertaken at Tanahun District. Introduction Chiroptera ranks most speciose among the orders of mammals in Nepal accounting 51 species (Hutson et al. 2001). From Western Nepal, Verheugt et al. 1995 recorded 15 species followed that 16 species by Bates and Harrison (1997) and 18 species by Baral and Shah (2008). In western Nepal bat studies had been focused to Syangja and Tanahun Districts, Pokhara city and Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA). Chiropteran study was seized for 11 years after Csorba et al. 1999. Then the expedition team collected specimens of nineteen species from the Western Nepal which is deposited at Hungarian Natural History Museum, HNHM and Zoological Museum of Moscow State University ZMMU. Monitoring of Myotis csorbai, Miniopterus schreibersii and Hipposideros armiger has been recently recorded (Thapa and Thapa 2009) from Kailash Cave, Syangja. Giri (2009) monitored seven species of bats among seventeen reported from Kaski District (Bates and Harrison
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1997, Phuyal and Dhoubhadel 2006). Eight species have been reported from Palpa, Butwal and Pokhara (Adhikari 2010). Csorba et al. 1999 reported seven species from Tanahun District. Three adult male and one adult female Rhinolophus affinis were collected at 670m a.s.l. from Chun Pahad, 10 Km west of Dulegounda. One adult male Rhinolophus pusillus was collected from Bimalnagar at 750m a.s.l. One adult male Rhinolophus macrotis was collected at 670m a.s.l. from Chun Pahad, 10 km west of Dulegounda. From Bimalnagar one adult male and one adult female Rhinolophus pearsonii,
one adult male H. armiger, four adult males and two adult females of Ia io had been reported with cranio-dental diagrams (Bates and Harrison 1997) and two adult males and one adult female Miniopterus schreibersii. The main objective of this study was to monitor the chiropteran species diversity, population, and distribution in Tanahun District, Western Nepal and update the recent information and access the species status. Materials and Methods Three days monitoring was carried out at the study area
Fig. 1. Map of Nepal showing Tanahun District (red colored), map of Tanahun District showing monitoring site (red dots).
1 Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal2Central Department of Environment Science, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal, *sanjan_thapa@yahoo.com
Small Mammal Mail - Bi-Annual Newsletter of CCINSA & RISCINSA Volume 3, Number 1, Jan-June 2011
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