@article{

   author = {López-Baucells, Adrià and Rocha, Ricardo and Webala, Paul and Nair, Abhilash and Uusitalo, Ruut and Sironen, Tarja and Forbes, Kristian M},

   title = {Rapid assessment of bat diversity in the Taita Hills Afromontane cloud forests, southeastern Kenya},

   journal = {Barbastella, Journal of Bat Research},

   volume = {9},

   number = {1},

   abstract = {Tropical mountain ranges are known to support high biodiversity. In addition to their role as refuge habitat, complex topography within these ecosystems promotes the development of diverse species traits and evolutionary divergence. However, species within these environments also face severe anthropological threats, most notably from habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, and climate change. A primary example is the Taita Hills in Kenya, which forms the northernmost portion of the biodiversity rich Eastern Arc Mountains. Despite the high biodiversity potential for the area, little is known regarding chiropteran diversity. In order to address this lack of knowledge, we conducted a rapid biological survey of bats during January-February 2016. Our trapping effort was focused on different habitat types (e.g. highland cloud rainforest fragments, lowland riverbeds and human structures) and diverse trapping methods were used (e.g. mist-netting and hand-netting). A total of 169 bats belonging to at least 19 species from 7 different families were captured across 16 sampling sites. We report 10 new species records for the Taita Hills region, including the first record of Miniopterus mossambicus for East Africa, with a major range expansion in its distribution, as well as the first echolocation call for Glauconycteris argentata in eastern Africa. Several cases of probable species complexes were also identified, which are the focus of ongoing molecular work. Together, our results demonstrate that the Taita Hills region is home to rich bat diversity, not yet completely assessed, and emphasizes the urgent need to conserve the remaining forest fragments.},

   keywords = {Miniopterus mossambicus

Afrotropical mountains

biodiversity

Chiroptera

Cyt-b mtDNA

DNA barcoding

Glauconycteris argentata},

   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.14709/BarbJ.9.1.2016.04},

   year = {2016},

   type = {Journal Article}

}