Australian researchers have found a species of big-eared bat in Papua New Guinea that hasn't been seen for over a century and was believed to have been extinct until now.
The big-eared bat, which is a species of vesper bat, was first discovered back in 1890 by Italian scientist Dr. L. Loria along the Kemp Welch River in British New Guinea, which is now southeastern Papua New Guinea.
Scientists were able to collect approximately 45 specimens of the bat, according to BNO News.
It only took researchers another 124 years for them to find one of the bats again.
The bat had been listed as "Possibly Extinct" on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for a long time.
The specimen was discovered during a field expedition in the Abau District of southeastern Papua New Guinea conducted by researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia.
"The species was presumed extinct. We captured one individual about 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the only previous known locality at Kamali," said researcher Dr. Luke Leung, according to BNO News.
Kamali said the New Guinea big-eared bats are distinguished from all other local bats by their large ears and a simple nose-leaf, which can be found behind their nostrils.
When the IUCN posted an update in 2008, it didn't mention the possibility that the rare bat species was still alive. If alive, they said that that the species would be threatened by habitat loss around human population centers in the Kamali District due to the quality of small rainforest patches in savanna woodland and the reduction of area, according to BNO News.
"It roosts communally in lowland sclerophyll woodland habitat, although it is not known whether the species roosts in trees or in caves," the IUCN said in its 2008 update. "Even the general habitat is not known for certain, but is assumed to be either savanna woodland, and/or lowland rainforest patches in savanna woodlands."
Ecological knowledge is "sparse" for much of Papua New Guinea's bat fauna, and the IUCN previously said that finding the big-eared bat was "one of the highest priorities" for field surveys in the country.
The species identification and conservation is extremely difficult due to the lack of information on the region's bat fauna.
"Further studies need to be done to establish whether the New Guinea big-eared bat is one of a small number of mammal species endemic to the south-eastern peninsula region, or if it occurs more widely," Dr. Leung said. "Many of the coastal lowland habitats throughout Papua New Guinea are among the most threatened in the country due to clearing for logging and agriculture, and more field surveys of local bat populations could assess the conservation status of the species and inform future strategies to ensure their preservation."
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