Otomops wroughtoni Thomas 1913

97.

Wroughton’s Giant Mastiff Bat

Otomops wroughtoni

French: Tadaride de Wroughton / German: \Wroughton-Riesenbulldogfledermaus / Spanish: Otomops de Wroughton

Taxonomy. Nyctinomus wroughtoni Thomas, 1913,

“Barapede Cave, near Talewadi [Kanara], S. India.”

This species is monotypic.

Distribution. Recorded from six disjunct locations in SW & NE India and NE Cambodia, including type locality in Karnataka, and Phrang Karuh Cave, Jaintia Hills, and Thangsah in Meghalaya; in Cambodia known only from a single specimen from Chhaeb district, Preah Vihear Province, while another record based on a photograph of a dead bat from Bahon Temple is also provisionally referred to this species.

Descriptive notes. Head—body 87-99 mm, tail 41-49 mm, ear ¢. 35 mm, forearm 63— 67 mm. Fur is generally chocolate-brown on dorsal side, and paler or grayish brown on ventral side; a thin grayish white collar extends across back, around neck and throat, and from axilla to groin. Upper lip is not heavily wrinkled as in the Wrinklelipped Free-tailed Bat (Chaerephon plicatus). Ears are large and join each other by a flap of skin over forehead. Small shallow gular sac is present in both sexes. There are white bristles on side offirst toe of hindfoot. Skull is rounded and smooth; sagittal crest is poorly developed; there is a very well-developed postorbital plate on upperpart of each zygoma.

Habitat. Forested habitat. At Barapede Cave, Karnataka, located in moist deciduous, semi-evergreen forest at an elevation of 800 m; both sexes were found roosting together in a deep hollow of the cave ceiling. In north-eastern India, the roost cave is located in a tropical semi-evergreen forest and near cultivated areas, at an elevation of 170 m. The species was recently found in three limestone caves in the Jaintia Hills of south-eastern Meghalaya. In Cambodia, a fallen bat was captured by hand in lowland degraded mixed deciduous forest, near semi-evergreen forest patches, at an elevation of less than 150 m.

Food and Feeding. Diet of Wroughton’s Giant Mastiff Bat is not known but is probably similar to other large molossids. The speciesflies fast and straight, in open space about 10 m aboveground.

Breeding. A female Wroughton’s Giant Mastiff Bat was found with a single young in December, where other females were pregnant with a single fetus. Individuals collected in March and May were found sexually inactive.

Activity patterns. Wroughton’s Giant Mastiff Bat is known to roost in caves, and was sometimes observed to come out from its roost late, up to 21:00 h. It uses narrowband FM signals with very low frequency. Based on hand-released individuals, start frequency is 18-5 kHz and end frequency is 12-4 kHz, with a peak frequency of 15-3 kHz and durations of 48-60 milliseconds.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Wroughton’s Giant Mastiff Bats form very small to medium-sized colonies of 2-15 individuals, up to an estimated 82 individuals.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. Populations are disjunct and very small, with only some 100 individuals each. Unregulated tourism and limestone mining, as well as deforestation, are considered the major threats to Wroughton’s Giant Mastiff Bat.

Bibliography. Bates & Harrison (1997), Corbet & Hill (1992), Francis (2008a), Prabhukhanolkar (2016), Ruedi et al. (2014), Thabah & Bates (2002), Walston & Bates (2001).