Bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from the Nísia Floresta National Forest, with new records for the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The state of Rio Grande do Norte is considered a data gap for bat species records in Brazil. The state is also currently target of large economic projects with potential impacts on bats, especially wind farms and mining enterprises. In addition, Rio Grande do Norte has few conservation units in which there is no systematic study on bat fauna. The Nísia Floresta National Forest (NFNF), a federally protected area of 174 hectares, is located in the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte and corresponds to one of the last remnants of Atlantic Forest in the state, in its northernmost limits. A bat inventory was conducted in NFNF using mist nets set at ground level, from sunset to sunrise, from December 2011 to December 2012, totaling 25 sampling nights. We captured 1,379 bats belonging to four families and 16 species. Artibeus planirostris (Phyllostomidae) was the most frequently captured species (n = 685; 50%), followed by Myotis lavali (Vespertilionidae) (n = 248; 18%) and Phyllostomus discolor (Phyllostomidae) (n = 147; 11%). Peropteryx leucoptera, Phyllostomus discolor, Phyllostomus hastatus, Lophostoma brasiliense, Lasiurus blossevillii, Myotis lavali, and Promops nasutus are new records for Rio Grande do Norte, increasing the current number of bat species from 25 to 32 in this state. Further inventories, especially using acoustic surveys with bat detectors, might add more species to the NFNF bat list.

Assessing the distribution of a species‐rich group in a continental‐sized megadiverse country: Bats in Brazil

“…The spatial and taxonomic bias found here is supported by new acoustic studies in Brazil (Hintze, Barbier, & Bernard, ) and reinforces the clear under sampled characteristic of the Brazilian bat fauna, with large knowledge gaps (Bernard et al, ). Therefore, besides some progresses (Barros et al, ; Dalponte, Gregorin, Esteves‐Costa, Rocha, & Marcelino, ; Miranda, Zago, Carvalho, Rubio, & Bernardi, ), our analysis still suggests that none of the Brazilian biomes can be considered well surveyed for bats (see also Varzinczak, Bernardi, & Passos, ).…”

The evolution of HIV/AIDS knowledge

“…The Brazilian regions and biomes have records of lituratus, having already been cited by the states (Reis et al 2013;Barros et al 2017). The reproductive pattern of this species varies geographically, with seasonal polystria being the most frequently observed, with two pregnancies per year.…”

Factors affecting searcher efficiency and scavenger removal of bat carcasses in Neotropical wind facilities

“…We used carcasses of house mice ( Mus musculus ; C57BL/6 strain) and chicks (from domestic chickens; 1 day old) acquired in animal houses and shops, and carcasses of bats (flat‐faced fruit‐eating bat) collected in urban areas 30 days before each test. We used flat‐faced fruit‐eating bats because they are very abundant in the study area (Barros 2019) and in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in general (Barros et al 2017, Vargas‐Mena et al 2018). We killed all animals by cervical dislocation, and immediately froze the carcasses and kept them at −18ºC for a maximum of 30 days until we used them in the trials.…”