Journal
ORYX
Volume 56, Issue 3, Pages 390-395Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0030605320000630
Keywords
Bats; biodiversity assessments; Chiroptera; Hkakabo Razi Landscape; Kachin; Myanmar; Northern Mountain Forest Complex
Categories
Funding
- UNESCO [4500291033, 7833010728]
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The Hkakabo Razi Landscape in Myanmar is home to a rich diversity of bats, with significant importance for conservation efforts. Despite its small size, it plays a crucial role in supporting a large percentage of Myanmar's known bat species.
The Hkakabo Razi Landscape, in northern Kachin, Myanmar, is one of the largest remaining tracts of intact forest in South-east Asia. In 2016, we undertook a survey in its southern margins to assess bat diversity, distribution and ecology and evaluate the importance of the area for global bat conservation. Two collecting trips had taken place in the area in 1931 and 1933, with four bat species reported. We recorded 35 species, 18 of which are new for Kachin. One species, Murina hkakaboraziensis, was new to science and three, Megaerops niphanae, Phoniscus jagorii, Murina pluvialis, were new records for Myanmar. Our findings indicate high bat diversity in Hkakabo Razi; although it comprises only 1.7% of Myanmar's land area, it is home to 33.6% of its known bat species. This emphasizes Hkakabo Razi's importance for conserving increasingly threatened, forest-interior bats, especially in the families Kerivoulinae and Murininae. There is also a high diversity of other mammals and birds within the Hkakabo Razi Landscape, which supports its nomination as a World Heritage Site.
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