Expanding fauna: Two bat species found in Malakand

The discovery was made by an associate professor at the university’s Department of Zoology and Fisheries.

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) scientists have discovered two bat species that had not been recorded in Pakistan earlier. The discovery was made by Dr Muhammad Mahmood-ul-Hassan, an associate professor at the university’s Department of Zoology and Fisheries, and Muhammad Salim, a PhD student whose work Dr Hassan had been supervising, as they studied the bat fauna of Malakand division in northwestern Pakistan. They found miniopterus fuliginosus and myotis formosus, two previously unrecorded bat species, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study was funded by the Bat Conservation International, USA. The miniopterus fuliginosus species was discovered in Barcharai Daim in Malakand district while myotis formosus was found in Barcharai Daim, as well as in Chinai Ghaz in Dir, and Wach Khwar in Swat. Dr Hassan said that with the two newly recorded species, the number of bat fauna in Pakistan had risen to 55 and of the mammal fauna to 195.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2014.