New data on bats from Dire Dawa region, eastern Ethiopia, with the first record of Rhinopoma microphyllum in the country

ABSTRACT

A small collection of bats composed of six species from Dire Dawa area, eastern Ethiopia, is presented. Besides three species previously known in the region, Rousettus aegyptiacus, Epomophorus minimus and Chaerephon pumilus, three bats were newly documented from the area, Rhinopoma microphyllum, R. cystops and Scotophilus leucogaster. R. microphyllum is here reported for the first time in Ethiopia. From molecular genetic comparisons Ethiopian R. cystops belongs to the Arabian subspecies lineage R. c. arabium, previously unknown from the African continent, raising interesting biogeographic questions.

KEYWORDS:

• Bats
• Afro-tropics
• Horn of Africa

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by LABEX-BCDIV CNRS-MNHN, preparation was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic: project NAKI II (DG16P02B038), for PB. The molecular lab work was performed at the ‘Service de Systématique Moléculaire’ of the MNHN (UMS 2700, Paris, France). We acknowledge the precious help of Dr Fanuel Kebede Gorfu, Ethiopian Wildlife Research & Monitoring in Addis Ababa. We thank the Environment, Forest, Wildlife and Climate Change Authority of the Oromia National Regional Government that provided a research permit (No. Lakk.ATENRSO/21-3-1585 guyyaa 4/03/2010). We also express our gratitude to East Hararge Zone and Chelenko District, Harar, and the Dire Dawa Administration Mayor Office. We thank Abdi Mohamed of the Dire Dawa Agriculture, Water, Mines and & Energy Bureau and Dire Dawa University. In particular we thanks, Mr. Abdi Mohamed, Dr Yitiberek Getachew, and Mr. Molla Fentie of the Dire Dawa University. Khalid Naji, a biodiversity expert, Chelenko District, also assisted us for authorisations and facilitation. In the field, a special mention is to be given to the Chief and authorities of Serkama Village (Hamedin Mahmoud Hassan) as well as to our driver Motbaynor Wogayehu. In the Addis Ababa Museum, we thank Yonas Andualem, director of the cultural heritage collection and Mr. Sahle for their great support. We are grateful to Peter Taylor for attentive reading and English polishing of this manuscript correction.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic [# NAKI II DG16P02B038]; LABEX-BCDIV CNRS-MNHN.