Species diversity of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in Assam, Northeast India

Bats are known to occur all over the world except in the Arctic andAntarctic regions and a few isolated oceanic islands.Bats have been on Earth for more than 50 million years. Currently,thereare more than 1,400 speciesonthe globe. Theyare the second-largestorder of mammals and are widely dispersed across six continents. According to the South Asian Chiroptera Conservation Assessment and Management Plan Workshop report, India has 114 species of bats of which 13 species are under the suborder Megachiroptera. The species Latidenssalimalii(Salim Ali’s fruit bat) found in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu and Otomopswroughtonii(Wroughton’s free-tailedbat) found in Belgaum of Karnataka are the two only Indian bat species that arelisted on Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972 amended up-to-date. Bats or chiropteran studies at Assam along with other northeast Indiancounterparts are very meager and there is no continuous study data from any places of Assam. Besides some detailed studies on the Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus giganteus) most of the other studies are based on opportunistic random catches. On the basis of the available research publications of a few bat researchers of Assam, it can becometo the conclusion that currently,Assam’scounterpartof Northeast India has about a total of 39 different bat species under 16 genera. Out of those 39 species, five speciesare recorded as Megachiropteran species (fruit bats) along with 34 numbers of Microchiropteran species. Most of the Microchiropteraspecies are insectivorous in nature with a few being carnivorous. All the recorded species of the Suborder-Megachiroptera were found to be included under a single family called Pteropodidae. However,Microchiropteraspecies recorded fromAssam werefound to be spread intofive different families such as Emballonuridae, Megadermatidae, Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae,and Vespertilionidae. The highest numbersof species were recorded under the family Vespertilionidaewhich is commonly known as “Evening bats”.Todate,19 species are recorded under this family followed by Rhinolophidae with six species. The rest ofthe recorded families shared 2-4 species.