By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 15: The lush green forests of Meghalaya never cease to amaze. These green lungs are a treasure trove of flora and fauna, many of them hitherto undiscovered. In yet another note-worthy achievement for the state, a new species of bat has been discovered from the forests of Meghalaya.
A team of scientists from Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Shillong, and two natural history museums of Europe have published the discovery in the latest issue of the prominent taxonomic journal Zootaxa.
ZSI Scientist Dr Uttam Saikia along with two other European bat taxonomists — Dr Gabor Csorba of the Hungarian Natural History Museum and Dr Manuel Ruedi of the Natural History Museum of Geneva — have reported this new species from a bamboo forest near Lailad in Ri-Bhoi district, which is adjoining to Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary.
Dr Saikia captured two specimens of this species from the area in the summer of 2020.
With this new discovery, the total number of bat species identified in India stands at 131 with Meghalaya harbouring the highest bat diversity in any Indian state with 67 species.
For describing this novel species, the researchers compared the Meghalaya specimens to a large series of specimens of all other species under this genus held in natural history museums across the world and came to the conclusion that the Meghalaya specimens indeed represent a distinct species.
The scientists have named the species as Glischropus meghalayanus in honour of the state from where it was discovered and also in celebration of the 50th anniversary of statehood of Meghalaya in 2022.
Commonly called Meghalaya thick-thumbed bat, the researchers noted that this bat has typical fleshy pads on the thumb and soles of feet which aid them to crawl over smooth surfaces of bamboo internodes.
Previously, four species of thick-thumbed bats were known globally and all are distributed in the South East Asian region. The present discovery is the first report of a thick-thumbed bat from India and also from South Asia.
Incidentally, this new species was discovered from the same locality from where the same group of scientists last year also reported the disk-footed bat in India. Significantly, this is the first discovery of a new bat species from India in over a decade and highlights the immense opulence of biodiversity in nature-rich Meghalaya.
Since the locality from where the new bat has been discovered is adjacent to Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary having similar vegetation, the researchers speculated that this bat might be available inside the sanctuary area as well. They also noted that this is the third species of specialist bamboo bat recorded in Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary and surrounding areas, and therefore, the bamboo dominated forests have significant conservation value and needs to be protected stringently.